Sensing electrode thickness

The reactant gas must diffuse through the electrode structure which contains air (02, N2) and any products of reaction (CO2, N02, NO, H2O vapor, etc.). Response characteristics are dependent on electrode material, Teflon content, electrode porosity, thickness and diffusion/reaction kinetics of the reactant gas on the catalytic surface. By optimizing catalytic activity for a given reaction and controlling the potentiostatic voltage on the sensing electrode, the concentration of reactant gas can be maintained at essentially zero at the electrode/electrolyte interface. All reactant species arriving at the electrode/electrolyte interface will be readily reacted. Under these conditions, the rate of diffusion is proportional to C, where... 

Li, X. and Kale, G.M. (2006) Influence of thickness of ITO sensing electrode film on sensing performance of planar mixed potential CO sensor. Sens. Actuators B, 120 (1), 150-5. 

Elumalai, P. et al.. Dependence of NOj sensitivity on thickness of oxide-sensing electrodes for mixed-potential-type sensors using stabilized zirconia. Ionics 12 (2006) 331-337. 

Elumalai, R, Hasei, M., and Miura, N., Influence of thickness of Cr203 sensing-electrode on sensing characteristics of mixed-potential-type NO2 sensor based on stabilized zirconia. Electrochemistry 2 (2006) 197-201. 

Electropolymerization of polymers directly onto the surface of an electrode has been used for a number of enzyme-based biosensors. By polymerizing from a solution containing the monomer, as well as the other components of the sensor, enzymes for example, a multifunctional polymer film can be fabricated. As the polymer film grows on the electrode, the enzyme and other components are entrapped in the film [9]. GOD and other enzymes have been incorporated into sensors using electropolymerization. Advantages of electropolymerization are that the film thickness can be easily controlled by the amount of polymerization charge passed, and that the polymer film is deposited only on the sensing electrode. 

According to this equation, for an amperometric oxygen-sensing electrode covered by a membrane of 100 pm thickness the steady-state current will be attained 38 s after changing the oxygen concentration (D = 3.9 10 cm Vs). Half of the steady-state value is reached at... 

Microsensor array arrangements (a) sensing electrode heater (front), (b) etching figure on reverse (back heater), (c) device for sensing thick-film formation, (d) mounted on PCB. 

The conductivity of the polymers was also measured using a galvanostatic four-point-probe electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique [17]. A four-point-probe cell with two platinum foil outer current-carrying electrodes and two platinum wire inner potential-sensing electrodes was mounted on a Teflon plate. The schematic view of the cell is illustrated in Fig. 6.3. Membrane samples were cut into strips that were approximately 1.0 cm wide, 5 cm long, and 0.01 cm thick prior to mounting in the cell. 

Ion-selective bulk membranes are the electro-active component of ion-selective electrodes, which sense the activity of certain ions by developing an ion-selective potential difference according to the Nernst equation at their phase boundary with the solution to be measured. The main differences to biological membranes are their thickness and their symmetrical structure. Nevertheless they are used as models for biomembranes. 

If substrate diffusion becomes rate determining, only a small fraction of the film at the film/solution interface will be used. On the other hand, if charge diffusion becomes rate determining, the catalytic reaction can take place only in a film fraction close to the electrode surface. Each of these effects will render parts of the film superfluous, and it is obvious that there is no sense in designing very thick redox films, rather there is an optimal layer thickness to be expected depending on the individual system. 

The decreased contribution of film resistance for the microtubular electrode makes sense because the effective film thickness for the microtubular system is less than for the thin film control electrode. This is because the surface area of the microtubular current collector is eight times higher than the surface area of the planar current collector. (This factor is calculated from the membrane thickness and the density and diameter of the pores in the membrane.) Since the control and microtubular electrodes contain the same amount of TiS2, the eight times higher underlying surface area of the microtubular electrode means that the TiS2 film is effectively a factor of 8 thinner, relative to the control electrode. 

Along with electronic transport improvements must come attention to substrate transport in such porous structures. As discussed above, introduction of gas-phase diffusion or liquid-phase convection of reactants is a feasible approach to enabling high-current-density operation in electrodes of thicknesses exceeding 100 jxm. Such a solution is application specific, in the sense that neither gas-phase reactants nor convection can be introduced in a subclass of applications, such as devices implanted in human, animal, or plant tissue. In the context of physiologically implanted devices, the choice becomes either milliwatt to watt scale devices implanted in a blood vessel, where velocities of up to 10 cm/s can be present, or microwatt-scale devices implanted in tissue. Ex vivo applications are more flexible, partially because gas-phase oxygen from ambient air will almost always be utilized on the cathode side, but also because pumps can be used to provide convective flow of any substrate. However, power requirements for pump operation must be minimized to prevent substantial lowering of net power output. 

Tissue electrodes [2, 3, 4, 5, 45,57], In these biosensors, a thin layer of tissue is attached to the internal sensor. The enzymic reactions taking place in the tissue liberate products sensed by the internal sensor. In the glutamine electrode [5, 45], a thick layer (about 0.05 mm) of porcine liver is used and in the adenosine-5 -monophosphate electrode [4], a layer of rabbit muscle tissue. In both cases, the ammonia gas probe is the indicator electrode. Various types of enzyme, bacterial and tissue electrodes were compared [2]. In an adenosine electrode a mixture of cells obtained from the outer (mucosal) side of a mouse small intestine was used [3j. The stability of all these electrodes increases in the presence of sodium azide in the solution that prevents bacterial decomposition of the tissue. In an electrode specific for the antidiuretic hormone [57], toad bladder is placed over the membrane of a sodium-sensitive glass electrode. In the presence of the antidiuretic hormone, sodium ions are transported through the bladder and the sodium electrode response depends on the hormone concentration. 

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