Applications of Ion-Selective Electrodes

As pointed out in the Preface, it is not intended to provide any cookbook recipes here. The activity in this field is so enormous today, that by the time such procedures appeared in print they would already be outdated. In addition, the more trustworthy manufacturers often include the best, most up-to-date working procedures with the electrodes themselves. 

---

The number of applications of ion-selective electrodes is steadily increasing. This is partially due to the fact that special electrodes selective for certain ions have been constructed by the user, and partly because substances are determined indirectly... 

One barrel-tip contains the organic membrane phase and an internal reference electrode the other constitutes a second reference electrode. A four-barrel configuration with a 1-pm tip in which three barrels are liquid membrane electrodes for Na, Ca and and the fourth is a reference electrode has been reported Some representative applications of ion-selective electrodes for intracellular measurements are shown in Table 3. 

Most important biomedical applications of ion-selective electrodes... 

The second edition of Ion-Selective Electrodes contains a survey of the theory and applications of ion-selective electrodes based on the literature published up to mid-1981. Because of the rapid progress in the whole field and the very large amount of diverse data, a compact and unified treatment of the theory has been attempted. The technology and the applications have also been updated. In view of these facts we have had to write practically a new book. In contrast to the first edition, only a selective list of references could be included in the book, because otherwise we would have to deal with more than four thousand references. 

R. A. Durst, Analytical techniques and applications of ion-selective electrodes. Chapter 11 of Ion-Selective Electrodes (ed. R. A. Durst), NBS Special Publication No. 317, Washington (1969). 

Methodology and Clinical Applications of Ion-Selective Electrodes, Vols. 1-13, IFCC, Milan, Italy, 1979-1991. 

Moody, G.J. and Thomas, J.D.R. (1978) Applications of ion-selective electrodes. In H. Freiser (Ed.) Ion-Selective Electrodes in Analytical Chemistry. Plenum, New York. 

Application of Ion-Selective Electrodes in Environmental Analysis Table 1.10.1... 

The rather narrow electrochemical window of water, limited by the discharge of hydrogen and oxygen, has stimulated the use of nonaqueous solvents for electrochemical reactions. Procedures for measuring and reporting electrode potentials in nonaqueous solvents are presented in reference [128]. The solvent influence on the redox properties of cations and anions has been reviewed [172], as have applications of ion-selective electrodes in nonaqueous solvents [129] and the influence of nonaqueous solvents on the polarographic half-wave potentials of cations [173]. 

Koryta, J. Theory and application of ion-selective electrodes. Anal. Chim. Acta 61, 329-411 (1972). 

Koryta, J. Theory and applications of ion-selective electrodes. Part II. Anal. Chim. Acta 91, 1-85 (1977). Whitfield, M. Sea water as an electrolyte solution p. 43-171, Riley, J.P. and Skirrow, G., ed., "Chemical... 

Most ion-selective electrodes, however, cannot be used for the direct determination of functional groups in organic compounds unless they are converted into ionic species. Thus, direct potentiometry is performed rarely with commercial ion-selective electrodes. For example, the CN -selective electrode gives an almost Nernstian response in the determination of substituted phenylacetonitriles and benzonitriles. Thiols can be determined by direct measurement of the voltage of a cell with an Ag2S-based electrode. Such examples are, however, not typical for applications of ion-selective electrodes. 

Boink ABT, Buckley BM, Cristiansen TF, Covington AK, Maas A, Mueller-Plathe O, et al. Reference method for determination of ionized calcium in serum, plasma or whole blood. In Maas AHJ, ed. Methodology and clinical applications of ion selective electrodes. Copenhagen International Federation of Clinical Chemistry, 1986 39-61. 

Lai, C.-Z., Joyer, M.M., Fierke, M.A., Petkovich, N.D., Stein, A., and Buhlmann, P. 2009. Subnanomolar detection limit application of ion-selective electrodes with three-dimensionally ordered macroiporous (3DOM) carbon solid contacts. Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry 13, 123-128. 

E. Pungor, K. Toth, and A. Hrab czy-Pall, Application of Ion-Selective Electrodes in Flow Analysis. Trends Anal. Chem., 3 (1984) 28. 

Durst, R. A. Ion-Selective Electrodes in Science, Medicine, and Technology, Amer. Sci., 59, 353 (1971). A short, easily readable article on the theory, functioning, and applications of ion-selective electrodes. 

Application of ion-selective electrodes to determine copper by standard addition method in nickel plating bath was suggested by Frant. Later Hulanicki et al." using a copper ion-selective electrode proposed a method based on multiple standard addition in presence of a copper complexing agent to prevent a harmful influence of chloride ions. In this work a similar method is used to determine copper also in zinc and cobalt baths. 

A.B.T.J. Boink et al.. Recommendations on the expression of results of ion-selective electrode measurement of sodium and potassium ion activities in undiluted serum, plasma or whole blood in clincal practice. In Methodology and Clinical Applications of Ion-Selective Electrodes , A.H.J. Maas et al., (Ed.), Vol. 8, p. 137, Graz, 1987. 

Since the early days of analytical applications of ion-selective electrodes they have been used in clinical analysis. The progress in construction and miniaturisation of electrodes as well as contemporary development of computerised potentiometric apparatus have led to the production of automatic analyzers designed especially for clinical applications/ The high degree of response selectivity of the membrane sensors used today eliminates practically the mutual interaction of various blood, serum, plasma or urine components. Nevertheless when drugs or their metabolites are introduced into the body they in some cases may influence the electrode response and cause errors in estimation of the content of the ions present naturally, i.e., potassium, sodium, calcium and chloride. Such parasitic effects may be caused by the interaction of drugs with the electrode membrane. The aim of this study was to check whether some selected drugs can influence the determination of the above mentioned electrolyte ions in the serum. 

On the wider biomedical front, application of ion-selective electrodes takes in mineralised tissues, dental materials, enzyme reactions, pharmaceutical products and drug metabolism. 

---