Design of a Real Time System to Determine Mass Transfer Coefficients in Thin Films

Abstract

The use of microelectrodes as a research tool is relatively new and it has extensive applications in the biological, medical and environmental systems. A real-time data acquisition system and a computer controlled micropositioning system has been designed and built to measure the chemical concentration gradients in biological membranes, which are typically less than 100 microns thick. The microcomputer used is a Texas Instrument Professional computer and the programming languages are C and BASIC. C is sophisticated as well as convenient in data acquisition and control aspects of the system, whereas BASIC's input and output functions are more useful than other high level languages. The computer controlled system designed, enables the movement of microelectrodes with the precision of 1 micron which is considerably less when compared to the precision of the movement of the electrodes applied in the current methods incorporating the use of similar electrodes. This helps to acquire a large amount of data from the same system and also helps in better understanding of the system.