Issue 21, 2014

Screen-printed back-to-back electroanalytical sensors

Abstract

We introduce the concept of screen-printed back-to-back electroanalytical sensors where in this facile and generic approach, screen-printed electrodes are printed back-to-back with a common electrical connection to the two working electrodes with the counter and reference electrodes for each connected in the same manner as a normal “traditional” screen-printed sensor would be. This approach utilises the usually redundant back of the screen-printed sensor, converting this “dead-space” into a further electrochemical sensor which results in improvements in the analytical performance. In the use of the back-to-back design, the electrode area is consequently doubled with improvements in the analytical performance observed with the analytical sensitivity (gradient of a plot of peak height/analytical signal against concentration) doubling and the corresponding limit-of-detection being reduced. We also demonstrate that through intelligent electrode design, a quadruple in the observed analytical sensitivity can also be realised when double microband electrodes are used in the back-to-back configuration as long as they are placed sufficiently apart such that no diffusional interaction occurs. Such work is generic in nature and can be facilely applied to a plethora of screen-printed (and related) sensors utilising the commonly overlooked redundant back of the electrode providing facile improvements in the electroanalytical performance.

Graphical abstract: Screen-printed back-to-back electroanalytical sensors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
15 Aug 2014
Accepted
29 Aug 2014
First published
17 Sep 2014
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Analyst, 2014,139, 5339-5349

Screen-printed back-to-back electroanalytical sensors

J. P. Metters, E. P. Randviir and C. E. Banks, Analyst, 2014, 139, 5339 DOI: 10.1039/C4AN01501K

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