Fabrication of an All-Solid-State Ammonium Paper Electrode Using a Graphite-Polyvinyl Butyral Transducer Layer

Abstract

A planar solid-state ammonium-selective electrode, employing a composite mediator layer of graphite particles embedded in a polyvinyl butyral matrix on top of an inkjet-printed silver electrode, is presented in this paper. The effect of graphite powder mass fraction on the magnitude of the potentiometric response of the sensor was systematically verified using a batch-mode and a flow injection measurement setup. Under steady-state conditions, the paper electrode provided a Nernstian response of 57.30 mV/pNH4 over the concentration range of 10−5 M to 10−1 M with a detection limit of 4.8 × 10−6 M, while the analytical performance of the array in flow mode showed a narrower linear range (10−4 M to 10−1 M; 60.91 mV/pNH4 slope) with a LOD value of 5.6 × 10−5 M. The experimental results indicate that the prepared electrode exhibited high stability and fast response to different molar concentrations of ammonium chloride solutions. The pH-response of the paper NH4-ISE was also investigated, and the sensor remained stable in the pH range of 2.5–8.5. The potentiometric sensor presented here is simple, lightweight and inexpensive, with a potential application for in-situ analysis of environmental water samples.

Amphiphilic Silver Nanoparticles for Inkjet-Printable Conductive Inks

“…However, the porous cellulose paper network, together with the relatively high surface roughness, tends to absorb the liquid ink and create pinholes of the deposited conductive material. Therefore, to prevent failure of the functional device, plastic coatings are used in many examples of paper electronics [ 11 , 63 ].…”

“…), as well as inorganic non-metallic (graphite, graphene and carbon nanotubes) and conductive polymer materials, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) nowadays predominate as the best conductive materials for the fabrication of printed electronics [ 7 , 8 ]. The following conductive inks based on pristine [ 9 ] and bimetallic core–shell [ 10 ] nanosilver structures have been successfully used for printing: conductive tracks [ 11 ], Ag-Zn batteries [ 12 ], write-once-read-many (WORM) memories [ 13 ], differential temperature sensors [ 14 ], textile capacitors [ 15 ], printed antennas [ 16 ], electrodes for the fabrication of solar cells [ 17 ] and electrochemical (bio)sensors [ 18 ].…”

Highly Stretchable and Robust Electrochemical Sensor Based on 3D Graphene Oxide–CNT Composite for Detecting Ammonium in Sweat

“…The ammonium-selective membrane, constituting the ISM in Figure 1 e, was formed by drop-casting on the active electrode film with a solution composed of 1 mg nonactin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA), 66.8 mg bis(2-ethylhexyl) sebacate (DOS, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and 32.2 mg PU mixed in 1 mL tetrahydrofuran (THF, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). The use of PU was to enhance the mechanical strength of the ISM [ 18 ]. The reference electrode membrane (REM) drop-casting solution was prepared by dissolving 78.1 mg polyvinyl butyral (PVB, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and 50 mg NaCl in 1 mL methanol [ 3 ].…”

The Role of Silver Nanoparticles in Electrochemical Sensors for Aquatic Environmental Analysis

“…Compared to potentiometric sensors [ 143 ], voltammetric and amperometric sensors are not commonly used for ammonium (NH 4 + ) quantification. Baciu et al [ 144 ] reported a novel sensing platform based on AgNPs and CNTs for the simultaneous detection of nitrite and ammonium species in aqueous matrices.…”