Article
Refine
Year of publication
- 2014 (93) (remove)
Institute
- Fachbereich Medizintechnik und Technomathematik (39)
- INB - Institut für Nano- und Biotechnologien (24)
- Fachbereich Chemie und Biotechnologie (23)
- IfB - Institut für Bioengineering (11)
- Fachbereich Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik (10)
- Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften (5)
- Fachbereich Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik (4)
- Fachbereich Energietechnik (3)
- Solar-Institut Jülich (3)
- Sonstiges (3)
Has Fulltext
- no (93)
Language
- English (93) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (93) (remove)
Keywords
There is significant interest in sampling subglacial environments for geobiological studies, but they are difficult to access. Existing ice-drilling technologies make it cumbersome to maintain microbiologically clean access for sample acquisition and environmental stewardship of potentially fragile subglacial aquatic ecosystems. The IceMole is a maneuverable subsurface ice probe for clean in situ analysis and sampling of glacial ice and subglacial materials. The design is based on the novel concept of combining melting and mechanical propulsion. It can change melting direction by differential heating of the melting head and optional side-wall heaters. The first two prototypes were successfully tested between 2010 and 2012 on glaciers in Switzerland and Iceland. They demonstrated downward, horizontal and upward melting, as well as curve driving and dirt layer penetration. A more advanced probe is currently under development as part of the Enceladus Explorer (EnEx) project. It offers systems for obstacle avoidance, target detection, and navigation in ice. For the EnEx-IceMole, we will pay particular attention to clean protocols for the sampling of subglacial materials for biogeochemical analysis. We plan to use this probe for clean access into a unique subglacial aquatic environment at Blood Falls, Antarctica, with return of a subglacial brine sample.
High-k perovskite oxide of barium strontium titanate (BST) represents a very attractive multi-functional transducer material for the development of (bio-)chemical sensors for liquids. In this work, BST films have been applied as a sensitive transducer material for a label-free detection of adsorbed charged macromolecules (positively charged polyelectrolytes) and concentration of hydrogen peroxide vapor as well as protection insulator layer for a contactless electrolyte-conductivity sensor. The experimental results of characterization of individual sensors are presented. Special emphasis is devoted towards the development of a capacitively-coupled contactless electrolyte-conductivity sensor.