Towards low-cost sensors for real-time monitoring of contaminant ions in water sources

In this work, a systematic study of the dielectric properties of environmentally-relevant electrolyte liquids is presented. Excessive amount of unwanted chemicals and ions in water sources can often cause environmental and health concerns. The lack of affordable and real-time sensors for these contaminants limits effective conservation and management strategies. To tackle these problems, we propose a method to exploit indicators extracted from dielectric spectra up to 20 GHz and thereby establish a basis for developing a low-cost sensing system. Results for nitrate, sulfate, and chloride ions show that the method can be judiciously used to uniquely estimate the concentration and type of ions.