Microfabrication, characterization and analytical application of a new thin-film silver microsensor

The present research demonstrates the microfabrication of a novel thin-film silver microelectrode based on an ion-selective PVC organic membrane. First, the gold substrate thin-film surface is treated by depositing a thin-layer of Ag electrochemically. This pretreatment step is followed by applying the organic-membrane-sensitive layer using a new nebulization technique, which gives a high stability to the organic-membrane-sensitive layer. The performance of the resulting thin-film silver microelectrode is investigated by potentiometric measurements. The microelectrode provides a linear Nernstian response of high sensitivity (58 ± 0.5 mV/decade) covering the range of 1 × 10⁻⁶-1 × 10⁻¹ mol L⁻¹ of Ag⁺ ions with a fast response time (<20 s) and a relatively long life span (>3 months). The suggested microelectrode is successfully used in the analytical evaluation of Cl⁻ ions in some real environmental samples as well as in the simultaneous determination of halides using potentiometric titration. The results obtained are compared with those obtained by the commercial silver billet electrode and the conventional bulk ion-selective electrode based on the same ionophore.