title: Exploiting a new electrochemical sensor for biofilm monitoring and water treatment optimization.
abstract: Bacterial biofilm development is a serious problem in many fields, and the existing biofilm monitoring sensors often turn out to be inadequate. In this perspective, a new sensor (ALVIM) has been developed, exploiting the natural marine and freshwater biofilms electrochemical activity, proportional to surface covering. The results presented in this work, obtained testing the ALVIM system both in laboratory and in an industrial environment, show that the sensor gives a fast and accurate response to biofilm growth, and that this response can be used to optimize cleaning treatments inside pipelines. Compared to the existing biofilm sensors, the proposed system show significant technological innovations, higher sensitivity and precision.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze Marine - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ISMAR-CNR), via De Marini 6, 16149 Genova, Italy. giovanni.pavanello@ge.ismar.cnr.it
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pavanello
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faimali
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pittore
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mollica
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mollica
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mollica
mesh_terms: D018441:Biofilms; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004566:Electrodes; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D054879:Halogenation; D009995:Osmosis; D018508:Water Purification / Q000295:instrumentation*