Screen printed thick film subterranean and subaqueous environmental chemical sensor arrays

Thick film environmental and chemical sensor arrays designed for deployment in both subterranean and submerged aqueous applications are reported. Various choices of materials for these different applications have been evaluated and the responses of the different sensor types are compared and discussed. Results indicate that the choice of binder materials is critical to producing sensors capable of medium term deployment (days) as the binders not only affect the tradeoff between hydration time and drift but also have a bearing on device sensitivity. Sensor calibration is shown to remain an issue with long term deployments (e.g. several weeks) but this can be ameliorated in the medium term with the use of novel device fabrication and packaging techniques.