Project Summary
Bacterial cultures, especially in bulk quantities must be closely monitored to grow in optimal conditions. These conditions include temperature, pH and oxygenation. Previous projects have effectively tackled the first two components of this system, but the dissolved oxygen sensing has remained an issue not only in the biomaker challenge-inspired bioreactor but in comparable initiatives as well. In this project, we propose to build a low-cost oxygen sensor for bacterial cultures. The device we aim to build uses a gold wire as a cathode and records current from the oxidation process as the analog input of the sensor. A potentiostat will also be built to control the polarization of the electrode. The overall aim is to have a cheap, open source and sterilizable device able to record the dissolved oxygen in a batch E. coli culture in a bioreactor.