title: Robust and Ultrasensitive Polymer Membrane-Based Carbonate-Selective Electrodes.
abstract: Quantitative analysis of the carbonate species within clinical and environmental samples is highly critical to the advancement of accurate environmental monitoring, disease screening, and personalized medicine. Herein we report the first example of carbonate detection using ultrasensitive ion selective electrodes (ISEs). The low detection limit (LDL) of these electrodes was at least 4 orders of magnitude lower than the best currently existing carbonate sensors. This was achieved by a simple alteration of the sensor's conditioning protocol. This resulted in the reduction of ion fluxes across the membrane interface consequently lowering the LDL to picomolar levels. The proposed ISEs exhibited near-Nernstian potentiometric responses to carbonate ions with a detection limit of 80 pmol L(-1) (5 ppt) and was utilized for direct determination of carbonate in seawater. Moreover, the new methodology has produced electrodes with excellent reproducibility, robustness, and durability. It is anticipated that this approach may form the basis for the development of highly sensitive and robust ion selective electrodes capable of in situ measurements.
authors.affiliation: †Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Birchall Centre, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Lukasz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mendecki
authors.affiliation: †Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Birchall Centre, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Tolulope
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fayose
authors.affiliation: ‡Sackler Sciences Center, Department of Chemistry, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Kelli A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Stockmal
authors.affiliation: ‡Sackler Sciences Center, Department of Chemistry, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: ‡Sackler Sciences Center, Department of Chemistry, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Granados-Focil
authors.affiliation: §School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, 2351, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Christina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: McGraw
authors.affiliation: †Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Birchall Centre, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Aleksandar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Radu