Graphite Screen-Printed Electrodes Applied for the Accurate and Reagentless Sensing of pH

Abstract

A reagentless pH sensor based upon disposable and economical graphite screen-printed electrodes (GSPEs) is demonstrated for the first time. The voltammetric pH sensor utilises GSPEs which are chemically pre-treated to form surface immobilised oxygenated species that when their redox behaviour is monitored, give a Nernstian response over a large pH range (1-13). An excellent experimental correlation is observed between the voltammetric potential and pH over the entire pH range of 1-13, such a response is not usually expected but rather deviation from linearity is encountered at alkaline pH values; absence of this has previously been attributed to a change in pKa value of surface immobilised groups. This non-deviation, which is observed here in the case of our facile produced reagentless pH sensor and also reported in the literature for pH sensitive compounds immobilized upon carbon electrodes/surfaces,where a linear response is observed over the entire pH range, is explained alternatively for the first time. The performance of the GSPE pH sensor is directly compared with a glass pH probe and applied to the measurement of pH in real samples where an excellent correlation between the two protocols is observed validating the proposed GSPE pH sensor.