Comparison of BOD optical fiber biosensors based on different microorganisms immobilized in ormosil matrixes

Abstract

Fiber-optical microbial sensors for determination of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) are described. Sensing films consisting of layers of an oxygen-sensitive fluorescent material and two different kinds of seawater microorganisms immobilized in poly(vinyl alcohol) sol–gel matrix were investigated. Tris(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline)ruthenium(II) perchlorate was used as the oxygen fluorescent quenching indicator. After preconditioning, the BOD biosensors could consistently perform well for up to one month. For films of domestic bacilli and films of sieved bacteria from seawater, the linear fluctuant coefficients (R ²) in the range of 4–200 mg/L were 0.9975 and 0.9783 when a glucose/glutamate BOD standard was applied. The relative error of standard deviations for the two microorganism-immobilized BOD sensing films were within 4% and 2% of the mean value, respectively. The effects of temperature, pH and sodium chloride concentration on the two microbial films were also studied. For low biochemical oxygen demand, a film of sieved bacteria from seawater had superior sensitivity and is expected to be developed further.

Keywords:

• BOD biosensor
• Microorganisms
• Sol–gel
• Ormosils

Acknowledgements

This research work was financially supported by the Joint Foundation of the National Natural Scientific Foundation of China, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (No. 400116196), and the National High Technical Development Project (863 project) Foundation (2001AA635100), which are gratefully acknowledged.