Sensing device having pulsed reference electrodes

Abstract

Disclosed herein are reference electrodes, sensing devices including said reference electrodes, and methods of using the sensing devices to measure nitrate concentration of a surrounding medium. The sensing device includes at least one current source and at least one ionic sensor including a reference electrode configured to release and recapture ions based on current pulses received from the current source to generate a reference potential, a counter electrode configured to balance the release of ions from the reference electrode, and a nitrate-measuring electrode configured to detect electrochemical signals representative of the nitrate concentration of the surrounding medium based on the reference potential. The sensing device includes at least one controller electrically connected to the at least one ionic sensor to receive the electrochemical signals from the nitrate-measuring electrode and determine the nitrate concentration of the surrounding medium based on the electrochemical signals.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.