Electrochemical Soil Nitrate Sensor for In Situ Real-Time Monitoring

Sustainable agriculture is the answer to the rapid rise in food demand which is straining our soil, leading to desertification, food insecurity, and ecosystem imbalance. Sustainable agriculture revolves around having real-time soil health information to allow farmers to make the correct decisions. We present an ion-selective electrode (ISE) electrochemical soil nitrate sensor that utilizes electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for direct real-time continuous soil nitrate measurement without any soil pretreatment. The sensor functionality, performance, and in-soil dynamics have been reported. The ion-selective electrode (ISE) is applied by drop casting onto the working electrode. The study was conducted on three different soil textures (clay, sandy loam, and loamy clay) to cover the range of the soil texture triangle. The non-linear regression models showed a nitrate-dependent response with R