Disposable Miniaturized Screen‐Printed pH and Reference Electrodes for Potentiometric Systems

This work describes the development of a miniaturized potentiometric system comprising a miniaturized quasi‐reference electrode (QRE) coupled to a solid‐state ion‐selective electrode (ISE) for the monitoring of pH. We describe the optimization of materials and fabrication processes including screen‐printing (SP), electrode treatments (thermal and electrochemical) and the formulation and deposition of an ion‐selective membrane (ISM), to obtain a system compliant with biomedical specifications.

We developed a potentiometric system composed of an Ag/AgCl QRE and a pH‐electrode (ISM deposited on a graphite electrode) that can be used continuously for a period of not less than 7 days in aqueous solutions. Curing the Ag/AgCl pastes during 20 minutes at 120 °C after printing allowed the QREs to display excellent potential stability, as demonstrated by an open‐circuit‐potential standard deviation of ±1.2 mV over a period of 7 days (n=3 samples).

Promoting adhesion of the pH membrane over graphite electrodes improved the pH‐electrode performance. This was achieved through a combination of thermal treatment and electrochemical activation of the electrodes by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The final device integrated both the QRE and the pH‐electrode, and displayed an average pH sensitivity of −60.8±1.7 mV per pH unit, over a pH range of 7.00 to 7.63.