The development of a portable pesticide detection system | |
| Author | De Silva, Uvini Hasara |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ISE-20-12 |
| Subject(s) | Pesticide containers Potentiostat |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Microelectronics and Embedded Systems |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Pesticides are compounds that are used for insect control, fungi, bacteria, and other pests. For agriculture, the significance of these compounds is huge–it would be difficult to boost agricultural output without them. Pesticides, on the other side, often have hazardous effects. Many of them are poisonous; carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and immunological issues are among their impacts. The detection of trace elements in a liquid is therefore important for a broad variety of uses including the identification of biological threat, quality control and diagnosis of diseases. A number of electrochemical detectors were built and used to test and evaluate chemical concentrations for unknown solutions depending on their chemical constituents. However, the effectiveness of these devices is reduced by non-portability, high instrumentation expenses and the need for extensive sample preparing. This project describes the creation of a low-cost portable pesticide detection system intended to overcome commercial electrochemical sensor constraints. It includes a potentiostat that is used for current-voltage measurements, which forms the basis for electro-analysis. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) is being performed through the developed potentiostat in order to obtain voltammogram curves. In a CV system, by sweeping the voltage over time and saving the respective current at the specific voltage, a voltammogram curve is achieved that is equal to the current recorded as a function of the voltage applied. The patterns discovered in CV can be considered as fingerprints of the experimental systems being studied, which are unique and coherent. In order to process and identify the electrochemical fingerprints obtained by the pesticide samples under study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classifier is being used as the chemometric tool. The pesticide detector interfaces with a GUI on a PC, and the prediction of the pesticide in an unknown solution is carried out in real time through the developed ANN models, once the device runs a CV scan on the solution under study. |
| Year | 2020 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Industrial Systems Engineering (DISE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Mongkol Ekpanyapong;Chanchana Thanachayanont (Co-Chairperson) |
| Examination Committee(s) | Manukid Parnichkun;Dailey, Matthew N. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | His Majesty the King’s Scholarships (Thailand) |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Eng.) -- Asian Institute of Technology, 2020 |