A Miniaturized Electrochemical Nitrate Sensor and the Design for Its Automatic Operation Based on Distributed Model

As one of the most common inorganic ions in daily food and ecological environment, nitrate (NO3−) is potentially harmful to both environment and humans. Therefore, the detection of nitrate concentration is quite important. Chemical sensors, as analytical measurement tools, usually demonstrate high selectivity, fast analysis speed, simple structure, convenient operation, and low cost and are considered to be a promising method for ion identification and detection. In this paper, a miniaturized electrochemical electrode is fabricated based on the microfabrication technology, and an electrochemical sensor for the detection of nitrate concentration in water is developed by combining the deposition technology of nanometal particles with electrochemical analysis technique. The developed electrochemical sensor utilizes electrochemical deposition to prepare a copper (Cu) granular sensitive film with a branch-cluster structure on the surface of a circular working electrode (Pt). Using copper’s characteristics of electrocatalytic reduction of NO3− in the acid solution environment (pH = 2), the concentration of NO3− in the water sample was calculated by measuring the reduction current on the working electrode when the electrocatalytic reduction reaction of NO3− occurred on the surface of the copper-sensitive membrane. The sensitive film is characterized and detected both with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) technique; and the microsensor is used to detect nitrate standard samples; a high detection sensitivity (24.9 μA/mmol·L−1) is achieved in the concentration range of 0.0 to 3.0 mmol/L. At the same time, a MEMS three-electrode sensor without gold wire bonding and insulating glue packaging is designed, and an automatic detection system is constructed with a STM32f103 microcontroller as the controller to realize the automated detecting process for nitrate ions. At the same time, a distributed system is constructed, which can describe the nitrate concentration in every position of the water area and realize the monitoring of the whole water area. The detection system can meet the working environment under most conditions and has practical significance.