Simultaneous Absorption and Fluorescence Using an Inlaid Microfluidic Approach for Tracer Rhodamine Experiments in the Gulf-of-St. Lawrence

Principal investigator

Joshua Johannes Creelman (M.Sc. Student), Dalhousie University

Co-Principal investigators

Supervisors: Vincent Sieben, Dalhousie University & Dany Dumont, Université du Québec (à Rimouski)

Call

RQM/MEOPAR TReX Graduate Students & Postdoc Awards

The aim for TReX project is to develop a low cost fluorometer for the surface water and deep-water experiments measuring rhodamine B with at least a lower limit of detection of 1nM. The sensor contains two main components: an optical assembly design for effective light collection, and a signal processing firmware development in the form of a lock-in amplifier for reliable and precise measurements. The optical assembly consist of an LED light source, collimating lenses for focusing the excitation beam, a source filter (excitation filter), collimating lenses for collecting fluorescence, a filter for fluorescence (emission filter) and a light detector. This optical setup is not a traditional orthogonal setup; the light source being orthogonal to the detector, but rather a 65° setup such that all optics can be placed on one side of a flat interface between the sensor and the environment.