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Microfluidic Soil Nutrient Detection System: Integrating Nitrite, pH and

Electrical Conductivity Detection

Article  in  IEEE Sensors Journal · January 2020

DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
Microfluidic Soil Nutrient Detection System:
Integrating Nitrite, pH and Electrical
Conductivity Detection
Sohan Dudala, Student Member, IEEE, Satish Kumar Dubey, Sanket Goel, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract— Soil harbours innumerable microorganisms,
nutrients, and other crucial elements, it anchors vegetation and
supplies it with the primary factors that make agriculture possible.
Soil health is determined by quantifying nutrients and physical
parameters that are required to be in optimum range depending
on the cropping pattern. In line with this, the current work
presents an integrated, low-cost, microfluidic-based system for the
detection of three such parameters namely – nitrite, pH and
electrical conductivity (EC). A filtration protocol using different
grades of Whatman filter paper was established to detect the said
parameters using a suspension of soil. A multiplexed
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device was designed and fabricated
to test for EC and nitrite. The device employed a conductivity cell
with copper electrodes, connected in series with a resistor,
powered using an oscillating power source. Griess reaction-based
photometric detection using an LED and photodiode was used to
quantify nitrite. A transimpedance amplifier circuit was designed
and fabricated to amplify the photodiode output. pH detection was
achieved using a commercially available pH probe and an Arduino
pH breakout board. A low-cost 3D printed syringe pump was
developed to achieve flow control. Atmega 328P (onboard Arduino
Uno) was used to integrate the subsystems. A smartphone
application was built to control the system and store geotagged
data. Bluetooth protocol was used to communicate between the
smartphone application and Arduino. Standards and real soil
samples were tested using the developed microfluidic system.
Index Terms— Microfluidics, Soil Testing, Nitrite Detection,
Point-of-Source platform, Three-dimensional printing
I. INTRODUCTION
S OIL is the source of nutrients for plant growth; it acts as a
water filter for the water table and is the habitat for billions
of organisms. The primary and probably the most important
Manuscript submitted on September 25, 2019.
Revised Manuscript submitted on November 17, 2019.
Revised Manuscript submitted on December 19, 2019.
S. Dudala and S. Goel are with MEMS, Microfluidics & Nanoelectronics
Lab, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, BITS Pilani,
Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad 500078, India (e-mail:
sohandudala@gmail.com; sgoel@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in)
S.K. Dubey is with MEMS, Microfluidics & Nanoelectronics Lab,
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering and Department of
Mechanical Engineering, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad
500078, India (e-mail: satishdubey@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in)
1558-1748 (c) 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
contribution of soil in aiding human life is its role in plant
growth. Healthy plant growth ensures food security, essential
for human life and the growth of any economy. Soil health is
primarily determined by identifying and quantifying nutrients
and specific physical parameters. Physical parameters include
pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and organic carbon (OC).
Nutrients are generally subdivided into macronutrients and
micronutrients. Macronutrients comprise available nitrogen
(N), potassium (K), and phosphorus (P), amongst many others.
Micronutrients consist of sulfur, zinc, boron, iron, manganese,
copper amongst others [1]–[3]. The nutrients are required to be
in the optimal range and their deficiency can hamper the plant
growth. Most of these nutrients are available as water-soluble
salts, and thus excess of these can easily seep into the water
table and contaminate the water leading to detrimental effects
on human health. For instance, nitrite (NO2-), which is
commonly found in nitrogen-rich fertilizers, is water soluble
and can contaminate drinking water [4].
Given the requirement to safeguard and improve soil health
by maintaining the nutrients and physical parameters in
optimum range, it is necessary to gauge the persisting values of
the components mentioned earlier. The identification of
existing soil health would aid in proper use of fertilizers and
selection of the best-suited crop.
In this work, the focus was laid on three parameters –
nitrogen (in the form of nitrite), pH, and electrical conductivity,
which are three critical indicators of soil health. The existing
methods for determination of the soil nutrients and physical
parameters are laboratory-based. They utilize lab-based
equipment (spectrophotometers, flame photometers) and
complex chemical processes to quantify the required
parameters [5], [6]. Lab-based tests are not only skill-intensive
but also expensive and time-consuming. Microfluidic
technologies are being widely used in environmental
monitoring and detection [7] to eliminate the drawbacks of
above mentioned lab-based tests, which not only expedite the
sample testing but also decrease the required sample size.
Nitrogen is an essential mineral nutrient for plant growth and
is abundant in fertile soil [8]. Nitrogen is utilized by plants,
primarily in the form of nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium [9]. The
conventional methods for the detection of total nitrogen and
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL

available nitrogen utilize complex digestion process involving
bulky and expensive laboratory equipment [5]. Nitrite, an
intermediate product in the conversion of ammonium to nitrate,
can also act as an indicator of nitrogen in soil. Excess nitrogen
in the soil can have adverse impacts. Nitrites, being water-
soluble, can contaminate potable water sources via agricultural
drainage from septic tanks and wastewater treatment resulting
in fatal effects on the human population [10]. Nitrates and
nitrites, beyond prescribed limits, have shown to have adverse
effects on human health. Acute toxicity in the form of
methemoglobinemia and a detrimental effect on the thyroid
gland are a few hazardous effects, amongst many others [11].
Carcinogenic effects of nitrates and nitrites have also been
reported in cases of chronic exposure [11].
Various methods exist for the detection of nitrates and
nitrites, including spectrophotometric, chemiluminescence and
spectrofluorometric methods, which have been compared based
on their advantages and disadvantages [12].
Chemiluminescence and spectrofluorometric methods have a
good detection limit; however, they are expensive compared to
spectrophotometry. One of the popular and established
spectrophotometric detection methods for the detection of
nitrite is using the Griess assay [12], which has also been
employed in our earlier work [13]. The Griess reagent is 1%
sulphanilamide (SA) and 0.1 % n-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine
dihydrochloride (NED) in 5% polyphosphoric acid H 3PO4.
Griess reagent is widely used in the detection and quantification
of nitro groups in a wide variety of applications, including
detection of nitro group compounds in biological samples like
blood and urine, and the detection of nitro compounds in water
[14]–[16]. Owing to the solubility of nitrite in water, a
suspension of soil in water can be made, and further filtration
can be done. Microfluidic technologies have been widely used
in microreactor applications [17]–[20]. Thus, the Griess test in
the microfluidic environment is accomplished by mixing the
reagent with the sample in the microchannels. The embedded
microchannels enable the use of small volumes of reactant
solutions along with the advantages of large surface-to-volume
ratio, high efficiency, and repeatability. Also, the streams in
microchannels primarily form laminar flow thus allowing strict
control on time and reaction conditions.
OVERVIEW OF SOME EXISTING SOIL SENSING SYSTEMS
Reference Fabrication Method/ Electrical Conductivity (EC) pH Detection
Material Sensing
[23] Si wafer Pt Electrodes
(EC Range: 7mS/m to 5 S/m)
[25] Conductive ink printing Four Pt/Au ink electrodes
on ceramic substrate (0.2 mS/cm to 4 mS/cm)
[24] Si wafer - ISFET
[26] e-beam evaporation on - -
Si wafer
[27] Macroscale electrodes Zn and carbon electrodes
(0.114 mS/cm to 0.744 mS/cm)
[28] Gold interdigitated - -
electrodes
[29] PDMS on glass with Au - -
microelectrodes
pH is another crucial physical parameter in soil health.
Nutrient availability, solubility, and microbial activity are
important aspects of soil health that depend on pH [21]. For
instance, the availability of micronutrients to plants increases in
acidic soil rather than in alkaline soils, whereas the availability
of macronutrients is increased in alkaline soil [22]. Mostly, pH
of soil for effective plant growth varies between sub acidic to
sub alkaline range. Ion-sensitive field-effect transistor ISFETs
have emerged as a popular choice for pH measurement [23],
[24].
Electrical conductivity (EC) is an indicator of salts in the soil.
Just as in the case of pH, EC also determines nutrient
availability and microbial activity, amongst other plant growth
factors. Excess nitrogen-based fertilizer use can also lead to an
increase in the electrical conductivity of the soil. As per the
protocol laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for
the determination of electrical conductivity of soil, a
conductivity meter is used employing conductivity cell [6]. A
parallel plate two electrode-based conductivity cell is well-
established. This macro conductivity cell has a possible
miniaturization application which was employed in this work.
Table 1 provides an overview of some existing soil sensing
systems [25]–[29]. Microfluidic based devices for soil nutrient
testing are reported in limited numbers. In the past, work has
been done to achieve microfluidic detection of nitrite and nitrate
in soil [28], [30], [31]. The method of detection employed is
based on impedance measurements. Impedimetric approach-
based detection systems have good sensitivity, but the
sophisticated fabrication methods for electrodes and
microfluidic channel makes the approach expensive as
compared to Griess reagent based photometric detection.
Recently, nutrient sensing using electrophoresis was reported
[29] where anions and electrical conductivity were
simultaneously analyzed. Integrated microfluidic system for
simultaneous pH, electrical conductivity and nutrient detection
has not yet been reported.
In this work, we report a microfluidic-based portable and a
standalone system for soil testing. Miniaturizing the test setup
is intended to decrease chemical reagent cost and detection
setup cost, enabling point of source and portable testing,
reducing the overall skill required for operation, and improving
TABLE I
Nitrite (NO2-) Sensing Additional Features
ISFET type - Temperature sensing, multimodal
sensor approach, signal processing circuit
available
- - Each electrode dimension 27 mm x
4mm, Sensor array interface circuit
used
type - Wireless Sensor Network Employed
sensor
Au, Ag/AgCl electrodes Electrochemical studies done for
with GF−TiN NFs sensor characterisation
(LOD – Nitrate: 0.01 ppm)
- - Wide range DC-DC convertor used
Impedance based sensing of nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S)
Electrophoretic sensing, soil solution extraction system incorporated,
7.5 µM LOD for Nitrate ions

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
the time required to obtain results. To develop the integrated
device, Polydimethylsiloxane was used to create the
microfluidic channel using a 3D Printed mold [32]. Griess assay
was employed to detect nitrite using a photometric approach
(LED-Photodiode). Electrode-based detection with the aid of a
suitable electric circuit was utilized for quantification of
electrical conductivity. pH measurement was achieved using a
commercially available pH electrode. Injection of the sample
was achieved using 3D printed syringe pumps. The system was
integrated using a microcontroller, Bluetooth module, and an
android-based smartphone.
II. EXPERIMENTAL
A. Chemicals and Materials
Phosphoric acid was obtained from SRL Chemicals,
Mumbai. Sodium nitrite, n-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine
dihydrochloride (NED), sulphanilamide (S.A.) were procured
from Sigma-Aldrich. All solutions were prepared using Milli-Q
grade water. Griess reagent was prepared by making an aqueous
solution of 0.1 g of NED, 1 g sulphanilamide, and 5.0%
phosphoric acid. Standard solutions of different concentrations
of nitrite were prepared in Milli-Q grade water using sodium
nitrite. Ferric chloride, sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide
were procured from Avra Laboratories. Sodium chloride was
purchased from SRL Laboratories, and standard solutions for
conductivity were prepared in HPLC grade water. Buffer
solutions of pH 7.0 and 4.0 for pH electrode calibration were
procured from SRL Laboratories. 4.0 molar stock solution of
potassium chloride for storing pH electrode was prepared using
potassium chloride obtained from Sigma Aldrich.
Whatman Filter papers conforming to different grades (No.
113, No. 41, No. 3, and No. 1) were purchased from Sigma
Aldrich. Ploydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as Sylgard 184 was
obtained from Dow Corning. Continuous cast polymethyl
methacrylate (PMMA) was procured from Mitsubishi
Chemical. Filaments of 1.75 mm diameter, both polylactic acid
(PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), for FDM
based 3D Printing were purchased from Novabeans (India).
B. Filtration Protocol
It is challenging to use soil suspension flowing through
microchannels in optical-based detection. Thus, mixing with
water and successive filtration was employed to obtain a
solution containing water-soluble components of soil with
better optical clarity. Centrifuge tubes (15 ml, Tarson) were
used for sample collection. A fixed volume of soil sample
(equivalent to 5 ml) was taken. Deionized (DI) Milli-Q water
was added in order to obtain a total volume of 15 ml. The soil
TABLE II
TIME FOR FILTRATION - DIFFERENT GRADE WHATMAN FILTER PAPERS
Whatman Filter Paper Pore Size Filtration
Time
No. 113 30 µm 16 minutes
No. 41 20-25 µm 27 minutes
No. 3 6 µm 136 minutes
No. 1 11 µm 83 minutes
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suspension was subjected to a centrifuge at 4,000 rpm for 3
minutes, which accelerated the mixing of water-soluble
components. The suspension was filtered using Whatman filter
paper. Whatman filter paper of different grades were tested
(four times each) and compared for time taken for filtration
(Table 2).
Fig. 1. Soil Suspension in different stages of filtration a) Suspension prior to
filtration b) stage 1 filtration c) Suspension after final filtration
A compounded filtering method (2 stage filtering) was used.
Grade No. 113 paper was first used for filtration, followed by
the filtrate being subjected to filtration using Grade No. 1 filter
paper. This effectively cut down the filtration time, and the final
filtrate did not exhibit any cloudiness. The filtrate obtained at
the end displayed optical clarity on visual inspection. The
suspension prior to filtration and the final filtrate is shown in
Figure 1.
C. pH Detection
pH detection was carried out using a pH probe and a pH
4502C Arduino breakout board (MEMIGHTY, India).
Interfacing of the breakout board to Arduino was done using the
power supply ports, and data was obtained via the analog input
ports. Bayonet Neill–Concelman (BNC) connectors were used
to connect the 4502C board with the pH probe. It was ensured
that the electrode was always dipped in preservation solution
(Potassium Chloride solution), when not in use, to prevent
damage to the electrode. Reference solutions of pH 4.0 and pH
7.0 were used to calibrate the device. The hardware calibration
was done by changing the potentiometer value and measuring
the pH value of the reference solution. Once a limit on hardware
calibration was reached, software calibration was employed by
defining an offset to correct any error. Post calibration, different
pH standards, and sample test solutions were tested using the
calibrated device and corroborated using a commercially
available pH meter (OAKTON PC 700). The comparison is
tabulated in results and discussion section as Table 3. The
maximum relative error obtained was 2.02%.
D. Electrical Conductivity (EC) Detection
For the detection of electrical conductivity, a two-electrode
conductivity cell was employed. A Polydimethylsiloxane
(PDMS) cell was fabricated using Polylactic Acid (PLA) mold
by fused deposition modelling (FDM) based 3D printing
(Creator Pro, Flash Forge). PDMS, available in the form of
polymer and curing agent, were thoroughly mixed in a 10:1
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL

ratio and placed in a desiccator. The mold was left to cure at
room temperature for 48 hours and was later extracted [33].
Two single strand 20G wires were incorporated in the design to
act as electrodes. A 6 mm wide copper tape was used as
electrodes. A conductivity cell was made with dimensions 10
mm x 10 mm x 6 mm. The electrode surface area was 6 mm x
6 mm and was placed 10 mm apart (Figure 2a).
EC of water in a parallel plate electrode conductivity cell was
obtained from Equation 1.
𝑌𝑥 = 𝐾 × 𝑌 (𝑆𝑐𝑚−1 ) (1)
Where,
𝑌 (Measured Conductance) = I/V (S)
𝐾 (Cell Constant) = L/A (cm-1)
A = area of electrode surface (cm2)
L = distance between electrodes (cm)
V = excitation voltage (V)
I = cell current (A)
When the fabricated EC cell was connected in series with a
9V battery and ammeter for preliminary testing, bubble
formation was observed at the cathodic side of the cell (Figure
2b). This could be attributed to the electrolysis of water. To
prevent this a 50 kHz oscillator circuit was designed and
fabricated (Figure 3). A 555 timer was employed in a stable
mode with suitable resistors and capacitors to obtain a square
wave 50 kHz frequency power source. A voltage drop of around
E. Nitrite Detection and Multiplexed Microchannel
In our earlier work, a proof-of-principle depicting a
microfluidic device with a Y-shape microchannel was
presented to enable the mixing of the sample with Griess
reagent under pressure-driven flow [13]. Owing to the
sequential detection of pH, EC, and nitrite, in the current work,
the microfluidic device was redesigned. A geometric model of
the microchannel was created in PTC Creo 3.0 (Figure 4). The
first region incorporated EC cell, and the later region
incorporated the nitrite detection region. A mold to be used for
molding PDMS was fabricated using 3D printing with a PLA
filament based on the geometric model (Figure 5a). The region
intended to be used as a detection region showed surface
irregularities, which, when molded onto PDMS would interfere
with optical detection. Post-processing by vapor smoothing of
the mold was carried out using Dichloromethane (DCM) (SRL
Chemicals, India), to improve the surface finish and enable
good optical detection. The 3D printed moulds could be reused,
however, to stay away from any unwarranted contamination,
each mould was used only once.

Fig. 4. Technical drawing of multiplexed microchannel (all dimensions in mm)

Fig. 2. a) Conductivity cell fabricated using copper tape as electrodes b) bubble
formation due electrolysis
1.7 V was observed at the output, effectively making the entire
circuit a 7.3 V oscillating power source. The output from the
oscillator circuit was connected to the conductivity cell with a
1 kΩ resistor in series. The voltage drop across the resistor was
measured at the analog input ports of Arduino by scaling them
between 0 V and 4.9 V. A program was written for Arduino to
convert this voltage drop to corresponding electrical
conductivity values.

Fig. 5. a) Mould for multiplexed microchannel b) Multiplexed channel with

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of the oscillating power source.
Griess reagent immobilized serpentine microchannel and electrodes.
Griess reagent was immobilized in the serpentine
microchannel. The microchannel was flushed with isopropyl
alcohol (IPA) prior to immobilization. The immobilization of
Griess reagent was achieved using a micropipette and pipetting
out the reagent in the microchannel. The open microchannels
were then placed in a hot air oven at 50°C for 90 minutes.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL

Fig. 7. Results from calibrated developed system. Error bars for absorbance
plotted represent standard deviations for 8 trials of 13 samples

Fig. 6. Integrated System: Circuitry and power source placed behind the vertical support bearing the syringe pump; Tygon tubing connected with 3-way stop cock to
alter flow direction for drawing and delivering the sample. a) 3D printed motor enclosures and supports: 1-stepper motor enclosure, 2-motor and lead screw coupler
support, 3,4-syringe holders; b) detection unit acts as enclosure for LED-Photodiode. The fabricated microfluidic chip is placed in a slot in the detection unit with
LED oriented at the bottom and photodiode at the top of detection region. c) GUI of the Android App.
Finally, the microchannel was bonded and sealed using double-
sided acrylic tape and PMMA sheet (Figure 5b).
F. System Integration
An injection system was fabricated to enable inexpensive and
controlled injection. The system comprised of single-use
Dispovan 3 ml syringes (HMD Healthcare, India) for injecting
sample and reagent. A stepper motor (28BYJ-48) was used for
driving the fluid, and a trapezoidal lead screw was used to
convert the rotary motion of the motor to translational motion
enabling the movement of the plungers of syringes. A
microcontroller was employed to control stepper rpm thus
controlling the flow rate of the injection system.
The detection unit comprised of a PIN photodiode ambient
light sensor (TEMD Series, Vishay Intertechnology, USA –
peak sensitivity at 540 nm) having good spectral sensitivity in
the required wavelength range and a 5 mm green LED. A
transimpedance amplifier circuit was designed using an
Operational Amplifier (Texas Instruments, USA) to amplify the
photodiode output to ensure linear gain, low noise, and high
repeatability. Resistor and capacitor values were calculated and
selected to obtain the desired output from an amplifier in the
range of 0.1 to 4.9 V to prevent the noise from affecting the
output.
A printed circuit board (PCB) was fabricated using a negative
dry-firm photoresist (DFR) based photolithography process to
accommodate all the components of the designed circuit. All
components of the detection unit were housed inside an
enclosed 3D printed black box fabricated using the
commercially available acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
filament (Novabeans, India). The amplified voltage was fed to
the microcontroller powered by a standalone power source (9 V
battery). The integrated system is shown in Figure 6.
5 ml of sample post-filtration was collected into the sample
container. First the pH of the sample was recorded. Tygon
tubing was used to draw sample from the container into the
syringe through the 3DP syringe pump. A 3-way stop cock was
used to control the direction of flow. Once the fluid was drawn
into the syringe, the stop cock was turned to enable the flow
into the microfluidic channel. The detection setup fixture
ensures that the detection region was aligned with the
photodiode and LED. Sample was then dispensed into the
microchannel. The electrical conductivity measurement was
done continuously for 10 seconds and averaged out. After the
electrical conductivity measurement, the microcontroller was
programmed to switch on the LED. Readings from the
photodiode were taken continuously for a period of 10 seconds
at an interval of 250 ms and averaged.
MIT App Inventor was used to create an android based
mobile app (Figure 6c) to control the entire testing apparatus.
Bluetooth was employed to communicate between the
microcontroller and the android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy
A7). HC-05 Bluetooth module was integrated with the
microcontroller. The inbuilt GPS of the smartphone was used
to geotag the results for reference, which could be used to map
and analyze the results over a region. The results were stored
locally on the smartphone and could be shared using existing
techniques. Integration can also be with a cloud-based server to
store and analyze the data as an extended application of this
work.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION microcontroller cannot comprehend these results. For the other
pH and electrical conductivity for standard known solutions readings, the maximum error is about 14%. The possible
were measured using the fabricated device (Figure 5) and a reasons for this could be additional resistance of the
commercially available device OAKTON PC 700. The results components or minor changes in distance between electrodes or
of pH and electrical conductivity are tabulated in Table 3 and the size of the microfluidic device. Nevertheless, by leveraging
Table 4 respectively. The results in Table 3 and Table 4 are other unique advantages, this device can be used for
reported after performing a minimum 3 repeats for each comparative estimation of electrical conductivity for soil
measurement. suspensions.
TABLE III
COMPARISON BETWEEN 4502C BOARD RESULTS AND COMMERCIAL PH METER Calibration was established using standard solutions with
# Solution pH Value pH Value from Error varying concentrations (0.2-4.5 ppm). Spectrophotometric
from 4502C OAKTON PC 700 (%) absorbance analysis using a UV-Vis Spectrophotometer (Jasco
1 Milli-Q Water 6.95±0.21 7.01 0.90 V-650) was performed on standard solutions. Results were
2 Test Solution 1 2.52±0.18 2.47 2.02 taken at the absorbance maxima of 542nm. The same standard
solutions were tested using the developed system. The results
3 Test Solution 2 8.6±0.12 8.56 0.47
from fabricated device and UV-Vis spectrophotometry are
4 Test Solution 3 5.63±0.14 5.67 0.76 illustrated in Table 5, which were used for calibration of the
5 pH 4.0 Buffer 4.01±0.12 4.11 1.62 device. As expected, the results (Table 5 and Figure 7) indicate
that the absorbance increases as the strength of azo dye
increases, i.e. concentration increases.
TABLE IV
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY RESULTS USING FABRICATED DEVICE AND
To establish repeatability, thirteen samples ranging from
COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE DEVICE 0.20 to 4.50 ppm, were prepared and subjected to testing using
# Sample Reading from Reading from pH the developed system (Figure 6). The data for eight trials for
Fabricated Device Meter each of the thirteen samples (thirteen different concentrations),
(µS/cm) (µS/cm) represented good repeatability of the system with the R2 value
1 0.1% aq. NaCl 1596.1±16.9 1647.32
equal to 0.9938 representing good linearity. The limit of
2 0.075% aq. NaCl 1182.5±15.2 1234.84 detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were
3 0.05% aq. NaCl 780.6±11.2 823.21 estimated to be 0.07103 ppm (1.52µM/l) and 0.21524 ppm
4 0.025% aq. NaCl 392.1±5.6 414.2 (4.78 µM/l) respectively. The LOD and LOQ were estimated
using 3σ/m and 10σ/m respectively. As discussed earlier,
5 Tap Water 655.7±7.9 740.6
nitrite in an intermediate product during the conversion of
6 RO Water 455.5±5.8 531.12 ammonia to nitrate, thus a correlation needs to be established
7 DI Water 38.05 6.013 between nitrite level and total nitrogen to analyze the results
8 3.5% aq. NaCl 3805.18 5412.02 better.
Based on the fabricated system, two real samples (red sandy
pH detection subsystem displayed good results against the and black soil) were tested. The samples were collected from
sample solutions. The maximum absolute error in pH value BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. Samples were selected in
between fabricated device and commercially available device order to ensure the difference in physical appearance (color,
was 2.02%. Based on the results from electrical conductivity granule size, moisture content, etc). Three test repetitions were
detection subsystem, it can be observed that the difference in done for each soil sample and the observations and results are
electrical conductivity between test samples (DI water and summarized in Table 6.
3.5% NaCl solution), is quite high. The reason behind this TABLE VI
SOIL SAMPLE TEST RESULTS
variation can be attributed to the voltage readings from
# Sample Physical Electrical pH Nitrite
Arduino. The analog inputs in Arduino could only read a signal Location Observations Conductivity Content
between 0 to 5 volts. For DI water and 3.5 % salt solution, the (µS/cm) (ppm)
limiting values have already been achieved, and the 1 D-Block Red Colour, 417.3±5.76 7±0.1 0.70±0.02
TABLE V Garden, Moist, Grass
RESULTS USED FOR CALIBRATION FROM FABRICATED DETECTION SYSTEM BPHC being grown
AND UV-VIS SPECTROPHOTOMETER
2 Construction Black, Dry, 1273.83±15.57 8±0.11 3.69±0.02
Solution Concentration Detection Spectrophotometer Site, Used for land
No. (ppm) System Output Absorbance I Block, fill
(V) (542 nm) BPHC
1 0.00 (Blank) 4.70 0.00213
2 0.20 4.31 0.01406
IV. CONCLUSION
3 0.75 3.90 0.04956
The presented work puts forth, an integrated microfluidic
4 1.50 3.05 0.08589
platform for soil testing. The device establishes nitrite detection
5 3.00 1.88 0.16479 with good repeatability. The standard deviation for
6 4.50 0.85 0.26255 measurement of lowest analyte concentration using eight trials
for thirteen samples was 0.0012. The system displayed

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
detection capability for pH and electrical conductivity with
maximum errors of 2.02% and 14%, respectively. An electrical
conductivity detection method was employed with ease of
fabrication. Shortcomings have been identified, and
enhancement will be done to improve detection range and
accuracy. Work is being carried out to integrate detection and
quantification of other soil macronutrients by utilizing the same
platform. To improve automation of the system, an automated
sample loading technique is being devised. Further, it is planned
to integrate the system with IoT to establish the possibility of
real-time monitoring soil health. With the component cost of
₹4,300 (US$ 60), the current integrated system is a step towards
a complete point of source soil analysis system to replace the
time, skill, and resource-intensive laboratory-based soil testing
and analysis.
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Sohan Dudala (S’19) received the B.Tech
degree from Manipal University Jaipur, India, in
2016 and M.E. degree from BITS-Pilani,
Hyderabad Campus, India, in 2019, both in
Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working
towards the Ph.D. degree at MEMS,
Microfluidics & Nanoelectronics Lab,
Department of Electrical & Electronics
Engineering, BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. His current research
interests include MEMS, microfluidics, Organ-on-Chip platforms
and point-of-source devices.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2964174, IEEE Sensors
Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL

Satish Kumar Dubey received his M. Tech in

Thermal Engineering from Maulana Azad
National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India
and PhD Degree from Birla Institute of
Technology and Science Pilani. He is currently
Assistant Professor in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering at BITS Pilani,
Hyderabad Campus. His research interests
include Microfluidics, Computational Heat
Transfer, Simulation of Micro and Thermal Systems, MEMS, etc.

Sanket Goel (SM’19) received the B.Sc. (H-

physics) degree from Ramjas College, Delhi
University, the M.Sc. (physics) degree from IIT
Delhi, and the Ph.D. (electrical engineering)
degree from the University of Alberta, Canada.
He headed the R&D Department and worked as
an Associate Professor, University of Petroleum
and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India, from
2011 to 2015. He is currently an Associate
Professor and Head, Electrical and Electronics
Engineering Department, BITS–Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad,
India. He has >80 publications, 7 patents (1 U.S. and 6 Indian) to his
credits, delivered >50 invited talks, and guided 12 Ph.D. and 9 master’s
students. His current research interests are microfluidics and
nanotechnology, materials and devices for energy and biomedical
applications. He has awards including the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship
(2015), the Young Scientist Award (2013), the Best Students Paper
Award (2005), and the Ph.D. Thesis Award (2005). Currently, he is the
Associate Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal and IEEE Access, and holds
visiting appointment with UiT, The Arctic University of Norway.

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