Electrode probe formation

Ion probes. Determining the level of ions in solution also helps to control corrosion. An increase in concentration of specific ions can contribute to scale formation, which can lead to a corrosion-related failure. Ion-selective electrode measurements can be included, just as pH measurements can, along with other more typical corrosion measurements. Especially in a complete monitoring system, this can add information about the effect of these ions on the material of interest at the process plant conditions. 

SCHEME 3 The electrochemical gene sensing system based on the formation of complementary sandwich-type complex, (a) Target DNA combines the ferrocenyl ODN with the probe ODN on the electrode. Redox currents due to the surface-confined ferrocenyl units should reflect the concentration of the target, (b) Ferrocenyl units are not deposited onto the electrode using nontarget DNA. 

In addition to their use as reference electrodes in routine potentiometric measurements, electrodes of the second kind with a saturated KC1 (or, in some cases, with sodium chloride or, preferentially, formate) solution as electrolyte have important applications as potential probes. If an electric current passes through the electrolyte solution or the two electrolyte solutions are separated by an electrochemical membrane (see Section 6.1), then it becomes important to determine the electrical potential difference between two points in the solution (e.g. between the solution on both sides of the membrane). Two silver chloride or saturated calomel electrodes are placed in the test system so that the tips of the liquid bridges lie at the required points in the system. The value of the electrical potential difference between the two points is equal to that between the two probes. Similar potential probes on a microscale are used in electrophysiology (the tips of the salt bridges are usually several micrometres in size). They are termed micropipettes (Fig. 3.8D.)... 

Problems with reference electrode/electrolyte. The sample solution can react with the electrolyte. The greatest source of error in biological solutions is through the formation of insoluble silver sulfide, often at the ceramic frit. A blackened spot is usually observed in a pH electrode that has been in service for a few weeks. This precipitate can impede the free flow of electrolyte and cause the probe response to become sluggish and cause large errors in the measured pH. 

The relative simplicity and low cost of STM instrumentation has contributed significantly to the rapid increase in the number of in situ electrochemical studies performed over the last decade. An excellent discussion of the general aspects of STM design and construction is available in a recent textbook [39], Beyond instrumentation, insightful experiments depend on the preparation of a flat, well-defined substrate and the formation of a stable tip capable of atomically resolved imaging. In this sense, the ability to reliably produce high-quality noble metal electrodes outside UHV has been central to the success of many STM studies [145-148]. In contrast, our knowledge of the structure, chemistry, and operation of the probe tip may be more aptly viewed as an art form. 

Solvent extraction has become a common technique for the determination of formation constants, P , of aqneons hydrophilic metal complexes of type MX , particularly in the case when the metal is only available in trace concentrations, as the distribntion can easily be measnred with radioactive techniques (see also section 4.15). The method reqnires the formation of an extractable complex of the metal ion, which, in the simplest and most commonly used case, is an nn-charged lipophilic complex of type MA. The metal-organic complex MA serves as a probe for the concentration of metal ions in the aqueous phase through its equilibrium with the free section 4.8.2. This same principle is used in the design of metal selective electrodes (see Chapter 15). Extractants typically used for this purpose are P-diketones like acetylacetone (HAA) or thenoyltrifluoroacteone (TTA), and weak large organic acids like dinonyl naph-talene sulphonic acid (DNNA). 

Figure 10.19 Schematic representation of the operational principle of the DNA sensor based on conformational flexibility change in the PNA probe structure stimulated by hybridization, (a) before hybridization, electron transfer between Fc and electrode is possible and (b) after hybridization, formation of the duplex rigidifies the probe structure, preventing efficient electron transfer. Reproduced by permission from Ref. 140 of The Royal Society of Chemistry.

The intercalation of polycyclic aromatic compounds into duplex DNA structures was used to develop nucleic acid-based electrochemical sensors.66 For example, the bis-ferrocene-tethered naphthalene diimide (16) was used as a redox-active intercalator to probe DNA hybridization.67 The thiolated probe was assembled on a Au electrode, and the formation of the duplex DNA with the complementary analyte nucleic acid was probed by the intercalation of (16) into the double-stranded nucleic acid structure and by following the voltammetric response of the ferrocene units (Fig. 12.17a). The method enabled the analysis of the target DNA with a sensitivity that corresponded to ca. 1 x 10-20mol. 

The guanine redox activity of the target DNA was used to detect the duplex formation by carrying out a square-wave voltammetric measurement (SQW). The results of the parameters optimisation for the probe concentration (40 pg/ml), immobilisation time (5 min by applying a positive potential of +0.5V vs. Ag/AgCl pseudo reference electrode) and hybridisation time (10 min without any potential) were very similar to those obtained in previous work [3]. 

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