Preparation and characterisation of a sensing system for wireless pH measurements in vivo, in a rumen of a cow

•Magnetoelastic resonance (MER) makes wireless measurements in-vivo possible.•Resonance frequency change on pH induced volume changes is due to trapped liquid.•pH response of functional polymer can be expected to vary between different liquids.•Mussel foot protein 1, mfp-1, enables simple and robust surface-bead attachment.•Mfp-1 enables use of a generic protocol for Layer-on-layer architecture. We describe a sensing system that is able to measure pH in-vivo, in the rumen of a cow, in real time. The sensing principle is based on gravimetric transduction using a magnetoelastic ribbon functionalized by pH-sensitive nanobeads that is placed in the rumen where it is actuated and read-out wirelessly. We describe a generic procedure that enables one to deposit monolayers or multilayers of nano- and micro beads onto virtually any substrate. The topography of the resulting layers as well as interlayer coverages were characterised using optical microscopy and scanning profilometry. First we determined performance of the system in-vitro, in phosphate-buffered saline, in McDougall’s buffer and in a rumen fluid. Thereafter we also performed in-vivo measurements. Using buffers we determined pH response in the liquids both at the fundamental frequency of the functionalised foils, and at the 1st overtone. We argue that observed frequency changes vs pH are mainly due to changes of trapped liquid when the bead layers shrink or expand as a response to changed pH. The data obtained from the pH response of magnetoelastic foils at different bead coverages was modelled by a simple two-parameter model that corroborates this assumption.