Chemical parameters, importance continuous monitoring

Together with pH, oxygen is surely the chemical parameter most investigated for biomedical applications, as its knowledge and continuous monitoring are very important in many fields, such as those of circulatory and respiratory gas analysis. 

The continuous monitoring of chemical parameters is becoming increasingly important in biotechnology, process control, environmental analysis and medicine. In a limited number of cases, chemical sensors are available that show a sufficient spedfldty for the components to be measured. More oft however, measurement with a chemical sensor can only be carried out after the sample has undergone some form of pretreatment. This is necessary to eliminate the influence of interfering species on sensor response, to obtain the selectivity and sensitivity required for an accurate determination. 

Chemical sensors are important for industrial process control and environmental monitoring. They also find critical use in medical and defense applications. Two of the critical performance parameters of a sensor are selectivity and sensitivity. When integrated with an appropriate sensor platform (e.g., quartz crystal microbalance or electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance), a zeolite film can improve the selectivity and sensitivity of the sensor due to its ability to selectively adsorb a component out of a mixture. A large number of publications have appeared in this area, and an in-depth review on zeolite films for chemical sensor applications up to 1996 was provided as a section in a recent review by Bein. " Here, we highlight a recent development of selective chemical sensor based on continuous oriented zeolite films. 

The predominant application of biosensors is in the biomedical field which has a constant need for monitoring biological parameters in health care techniques. The biosensor is particularly suitable for such measurements because a sample can be analysed in a complex biological environment without the need for chemical reagents. Biosensors can be used in vivo and, because they give a continuous signal, can monitor metabolite concentrations in real time. Hence their important application in the control of blood sugar in diabetics. 

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