A novel respirometer is developed for microbial toxicity tests. The respirometer is based on luminescent quenching of oxygen to measure the concentration of dissolved oxygen in cell vessels and evaluate the toxicity of chemicals by monitoring the effect of toxicants on cell respiration of micro-organisms. The oxygen sensing element is ruthenium complex absorbed on the surface of silica particles followed by immobilizing on a silicone rubber film. The oxygen sensing film is coated on the inner bottom of a transparent cell vessel. A sensing device scanning under the cell vessel is used for remote monitoring of the oxygen concentration inside the cell vessels so that a large number of samples can be handled in one batch. The sensing device includes the excitation light sources and an optical cable connected to a filter and a photomultiplier tube for detecting the luminescence in the cell vessel which can then be related to the dissolved oxygen concentration inside the cell vessel. The movement of the sensing device and data acquisition are controlled by a personal computer. The toxicity of heavy metals to activated sludge, soil bacteria and E. coli were tested using the present device. The scanning respirometer provides a new alternative for fast and large scale screening and monitoring of toxicants using micro-organisms.
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