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ion selective coatings and fluorometric reporters could find wide application in development of
multianalyte systems.
These vigorous discussions led to development of a series of recommendations that the group felt
were needed to facilitate continued development of field deployable metal analysis tools. These
recommendations were subsequently prioritized by the results of workshop polling.
The enthusiastic and rigorous discussions among the workshop participants led to their
development of the following top ten recommendations that they as a community, felt would help
promote the regulatory acceptance and commercialization of tools for
in situ
metal analysis.
1. Increase scientific and public awareness of metals of environmental and biological
concern, impacts in aquatic environments, and the distinction between biologically useful
and toxic concentrations.
2. Identify multiple use applications (e.g. industrial waste steam and drinking water quality
monitoring) to support investments in metal sensor development. Technologies with
broad performance capabilities (e.g. functional in both fresh and saltwater along with ease
of deployment customization) were identified as critical design targets.
3. Promote development of
in situ
or field deployable analytical packages for rapid screening
and/or pollutant source tracking as well as follow up analytical sensor development.
Water quality management efforts would be enhanced by robust affordable user-friendly
sensor packages and analytical software that could improve budget allocation for
analytical services to support QA/QC requirements.
4. Encourage research and development of new ionophores, metal-specific fluorochromes
and ligands, which would enhance development of sensors for additional metal-species by
leveraging existing metal detection platforms (e.g., ion selective electrodes, flow injection
analysis, biosensors, diffusive gradients thin films).
5. Develop sensors or
in situ
analytical packages for detection of labile metal species.
Consensus on a
standardized definition of this class is critical
(e.g. free ion activity, vs.
inorganic species vs. weak ligand bound). Further refinement and legal standing of water
quality criteria requires clear definition of connection between labile metal species and
biological activity measures.
6. Define ancillary environmental measurements (e.g. pH, temp, salinity, dissolved O2,
redox, alkalinity/hardness, TSS, CDOM) required to facilitate accurate interpretation of
W
ORKSHOP
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ECOMMENDATIONS
ACT Workshop on Trace Metal Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15