Fully-Printed Ion Sensor Arrays for Measuring Agricultural Nitrogen and Potassium Concentrations Using Nernstian and AI Models

Abstract

The chemical composition of growing media is a key factor for plant growth, impacting agricultural yield and sustainability. However, there is a lack of affordable chemical sensors for ubiquitous nutrient ion monitoring in agricultural applications. This work investigates using fully printed ion-sensor arrays to measure the concentrations of nitrate, ammonium, and potassium in mixed-electrolyte media. Ion sensor arrays composed of nitrate, ammonium, and potassium ion-selective electrodes and a printed silver-silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) reference electrode are fabricated and characterized in aqueous solutions in a range of concentrations that encompass what is typical for agricultural growing media (0.01 mm –1 m). The sensors are also tested in mixed-electrolyte solutions of NaNO₃, NH₄Cl, and KCl of varying concentrations, and the recorded potentials are input into Nernstian and artificial neural network models to compare the prediction accuracy of the models against ground truth. The artificial neural network models demonstrated higher accuracy over the Nernstian model, and the model using only ion-sensor inputs is 7.5% more accurate than the Nernstian model under the same conditions. By enabling more precise and efficient fertilizer application, these sensor arrays coupled to computational models can help increase crop yields, optimize resource use, and reduce environmental impact.