A Microfluidic Ion Analyzer

Human presence on the Moon, Mars or other remote base locations will have minimal or no re-supply of resources. These missions will require a completely self-contained comprised of regenerative physicochemical and biological technologies to sustain the crew. One of the highest priorities is to process and recover clean water. Monitoring the purity of the water is, therefore, of critical importance. State-of-the-art ground-based instrumentation is widely available, however these technologies are not suitable for spaceflight because of weight, volume, power and microgravity limitations. Recent advances in microfluidics permit development of new analytical methods that will meet the requirements of the spaceflight environment. Lynntech proposes development of a microfluidic ion analyzer, which minimizes the requirements for reagents, can be designed and operated as a hand-held instrument and will be capable of monitoring a wide range of ionic species not previously available in any commercial instrument. In Phase I study, major components of the analyzer for cation analysis were fabricated and tested, demonstrating the detection of ammonium at the level as low as 0.1 ppm. This Phase II project will develop a hand-held device to offer analysis of multiple cations and anions, including ammonium, nitrite and nitrate, which can be used in spaceflight.