Performances and Robustness of a Fluorescent Sensor for Nearly Neutral pH Measurements in Healthcare

The capability to measure pH is fundamental in many fields ranging from healthcare and agrifood, to chemistry and industrial applications. In medicine, the possibility of in-line and real-time monitoring critical care analytes, such as pH, is recognized to provide relevant information for the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of disorders and would be of considerable support for the management of extracorporeal (blood) circulation (ECC). In this article, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the performances and the robustness of a fluorescent sensor that we recently proposed for the in-line and real-time monitoring of blood pH in ECC. Indeed, being low-cost and biocompatible, the proposed sensor can be advantageously exploited for the in-line and real-time monitoring of the pH of fluids, particularly in applications such as healthcare where safe and low-cost disposables are usually required for all parts which come into contact with the patient. The reported results demonstrate that the proposed sensor allows achieving significant robustness to unevennesses in the production process of the sensing element.