title: Electrochemical Impedance Sensors for Monitoring Trace Amounts of NO3 in Selected Growing Media.
abstract: With the advent of smart cities and big data, precision agriculture allows the feeding of sensor data into online databases for continuous crop monitoring, production optimization, and data storage. This paper describes a low-cost, compact, and scalable nitrate sensor based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for monitoring trace amounts of NO3- in selected growing media. The nitrate sensor can be integrated to conventional microelectronics to perform online nitrate sensing continuously over a wide concentration range from 0.1 ppm to 100 ppm, with a response time of about 1 min, and feed data into a database for storage and analysis. The paper describes the structural design, the Nyquist impedance response, the measurement sensitivity and accuracy, and the field testing of the nitrate sensor performed within tree nursery settings under ISO/IEC 17025 certifications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. seyed-alireza.ghaffari.1@ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Seyed Alireza
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ghaffari
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. william-olivier.caron.1@ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: William-O
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Caron
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. mathilde.loubier.1@ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Mathilde
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loubier
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. charles-olivier.normandeau.1@ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Charles-O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Normandeau
authors.affiliation: Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. jfviens@copl.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Viens
authors.affiliation: Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs. Quebec, G1P 3W8, Canada. Mohammed.Lamhamedi@mffp.gouv.qc.ca.
authors.forename: Mohammed S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lamhamedi
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. Benoit.Gosselin@gel.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gosselin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. younes.messaddeq@copl.ulaval.ca.|Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. younes.messaddeq@copl.ulaval.ca.|JIRU Instituto de Quimica, Araraquara-SP 14800-060, Brazil. younes.messaddeq@copl.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Younes
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Messaddeq
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D009566:Nitrates / Q000032:analysis*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D009566:Nitrates; D012987:Soil
keywords: electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; microelectronics; nitrate sensor