Frugal Love wave acoustic sensor full plaform for in situ operation in liquids

This work presents a Love wave (LW) sensor platform based on the concept of “frugality”. The implementation of the whole “frugal” platform used conventional and cheap components like an electronic circuit made with PCB manufacturing, an Arduino microcontroller, a PDMS microfluidic mold made by additive manufacturing, or by xurography. The main innovation of this work lies in the use of a transducer with a biofilm based on exopolymers (EPS) released by microalgae and obtained by simple centrifugation and ultrafiltration of their culture medium. It was shown that the EPS adhered easily to the surface of the LW sensor which allows their deposition using a single layer. The acoustic characterization showed the validity of such a LW wave sensor platform to be operational for biochemical detection in liquid medium. The implementation of the entire “frugal” platform as a portable mobile laboratory was demonstrated. This preliminary work opens the way to new frugal platforms, usable for a wider audience and which would be of great interest for the popularization of sensors in environmental monitoring.