In this article, we evaluate the performance of a commercially available lifetime-based optode and compare it with data obtained by other methods. We performed a set of 10 different tests, including targeted laboratory evaluations and field studies, covering a wide range of situations from shallow coastal waters and wastewater treatment plants to abyssal depths. Our principal conclusion is that, owing to high accuracy (± 2 µM), long-term stability (more than 20 months), lack of pressure hysteresis, and limited cross-sensitivity, this method is overall more suitable for oxygen monitoring than other methods.

This article reports the performance of an improved, newly developed, compact, low power, lifetime-based optical sensor (optode) for measuring partial pressure of dissolved CO 2 gas (pCO 2 ) in natural waters. The results suggest that after preconditioning, these sensors are stable in water for time periods longer than 7 months. The wide dynamic range of about 0-50000 μatm opens possibilities for numerous applications of which some are presented. In normal marine environments with pCO 2 levels of 200-1000 μatm, the best-obtained precision was about ±2 μatm, and the absolute accuracy was between 2-75 μatm, depending on the deployment and the quality of the collected reference water samples. One limitation is that these sensors will become irreversibly poisoned by H 2 S and should thus not be deployed in sulphidic environments.

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A material support is proposed which grants long-term stability for fluorescence lifetime pH measurements due to a homogeneous chemical microenvironment.

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A significant challenge concerning the development of fluorescence lifetime (FL) based pH sensors is the paucity of fluorophores with sufficiently large FL variation with pH. Acridine is amongst the indicators with highest fluoresce lifetime responses to pH, with a change in lifetime of about 13 ns within a pH range of 5–8. Here we examine the two acridine derivatives, 9-acridinemethanamine (9-AMA) and acridine-9-carbaldehyde (9-ACA) in terms of their FL pH sensitivity and pH sensing range. Both indicators are characterized when dissolved in buffer solutions, as well as when immobilized in support materials. 9-AMA has a change in FL of 11 ns between pH 2–5, both when dissolved in solution and when immobilized in surfactant-filled mesoporous silica. The FL of 9-ACA is not sensitive to pH when dissolved in buffer solutions; however, when covalently bound to amine-modified silica, its FL changes 15 ns between pH 3–6. 9-AMA and 9-ACA represent promising FL in the pH range of pH 2–6, and could potentially form the basis of new FL pH sensors.