Spray-coated all-solid-state potentiometric sensors

Abstract

A novel fully spray coating-based method of the preparation of all-solid-state ion-selective electrodes of simplified construction is proposed. This method is an alternative for screen-printed electrodes used sometimes in potentiometric applications. The benefits of the herein-proposed approach include fully automatic sensor preparation and minimized use of chemicals allowing for the production of low-cost sensors that can be applied as disposables. A layer of spray-coated carbon nanotubes on an inert support was used both as an electrical lead and as a transducer, to simplify sensor layout and to avoid the possible problems of changing in-time composition of this layer, as previously observed in the case of screen-printed supporting electrodes in potentiometric applications. The ion-selective poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane and the insulator layer were also spray-coated. The obtained sensors, as the model system potassium-selective sensors were prepared and characterized with analytical parameters well comparable with that of conventional, all-solid-state, ion-selective electrodes. In addition, the applicability of the herein-proposed approach to prepare other ion-selective electrodes was tested on examples of H⁺ and Cl⁻ sensors.