There currently is no commercially available instrument which can be programmed and used in real time to analyze a variety of electroactive species in the marine environment and simultaneously record pH and temperature.The development of a deployable / profiling electrochemical platform would allow for the real time measurement of electroactive species, pH and temperature in the water column, sediments and soils. Further, the instrument can be moored in position to take timed data, and used in the analysis of sediments in the ocean, bays, harbors (Tengberg, 1995), or planet surfaces. With the concern about "Hot Spots", where both copper, tin, lead paints from ships and lead from discarded batteries from lighted buoys is a concern, an instrument such as this could be used to locate contaminated sediments in bays and harbors. A moored electrochemical instrument can also be used to monitor discharge compliance from manufacturing, electrical power plants (for detecting copper or other metal contamination), in monitoring the effluent from hydrothermal vents (Nuzzio, 1988,1999) or used as alander on a planetary surface.
Potential Commercial Applications:The ability to couple a rugged, small, potentiostat, with a variety of analytical voltammetric and stripping techniques, including pH, temperature and profiling, traditionally left for the lab bench, makes this instrument a truly exciting tool for the researcher. This is a very opportune time for the development of such a device, in light of the growing need from the oceanographic, environmental and planetary communities (see attached letters). Continued funding will allow this technology to be expanded into the consumer marketplace. Inexpensive water analyzers could be constructed, the possibilities are endless!
