Palm-sized Flow-Injection-Analysis for detecting ferric ions

The Flow-Injection-Analysis (FIA) is a well known and widely used procedure for quantitative sensing of components in fluids. A huge number of analytes can be detected with specially developed procedures. Although due to its size the FIA is most often used in laboratories. Due to its accuracy and reproducibility a portable FIA for in-field measurements is a needed device. The here presented micro FIA is a portable device that fits in the palm of a hand. This miniaturization was possible using a technology where printed circuit boards (PCB) are used to create the fluidic components like pumps, valves, channels and reservoirs. The fluidic parts are created in the inside and needed electronics to control the FIA are placed on the outside of the PCB stack. The here presented micro FIA was build to detect ferric ions and reaches a reproducibility of ± 1.6% in a range of 0.09 mM to 10 mM.