SBIR-STTR Award

An electrochemical instrumentation system will be designed and constructed to determine on command plant water status by means of cyclic voltammetry and/or coulostatics. The approach is based on the change in electrochemical status of the apoplast electrolyte during the normal irrigation cycle. A three window microprobe will be fabricated on a silicon wafer substrate using the planar techniques common to semiconductor Electronics. The probe will be placed in the main stem of cotton plants in commercial fields. Solar driven electronics will then apply the in vivo active electroanalytical methods to monitor the change in the electrochemical status of the apoplast electrolyte.

Keywords:
1. Plant physiology2. Sensors. tranducers. instrumentation3. Batteries. fuel cells. electrochemistry energy storage

A PHYTQGRAM NETWORK consists of a set of in vivo electrochemical sensors placed in the main stems of cotton plants, a buried field acquisition pod, a central processing and display unit at the farm headquarters and bi-directional radio communication links between the fields, farm headquarters and pumping sites. The purpose of this totally automatic network is to set the water application rate to optimize the yield/water ratio. A network will be set up in 8 fields at each of 2 cotton farms in central Arizona. Conventional round and planar microelectronic probes will be used. A boll count will be taken to determine the ability of the network to optimize the yield/water ratio as the season progresses. The network fields will be tested side by side with fields managed by conventional methods.