Development of moisture, rainfall and water volume sensors for embedded environmental monitoring systems based on high performance conducting graphite

• Grant number: 19/14795-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2019
• End date: October 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Galembeck
• Grantee: Yago Sampaio Guido
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/50906-9 - INCT 2014: in Functional Complex Materials, AP.TEM

Abstract

The IB Laboratory of Educational Technology (LTE) has been working in the development of remote experiments for Biology Teaching, offering to public schools the possibility of conducting experiments remotely, involving diverse curricular contents, with emphasis on those that involve the study of the biodiversity of microorganisms, which involves monitoring of environmental conditions and microscopy. Among the equipment developed by LTE, there are several that measure soil moisture and others that require rainfall and water levels in aquariums. The widely available sensors in the market at affordable prices use metallic compounds that need to stay in contact with water for a long time, which has resulted in wear problems, which in many cases undermine the experiments, because the sensors stop working before the end of the experiments that in some cases may last for a few months. In view of this scenario, this project aims at the development and evaluation of non-metallic sensors, based on high-performance conducting graphite, that allow the realization of the necessary measurements in long intervals of time.