Sol-gel based surface modification of electrodes for electro analysis.

In chemical analysis and electrochemical catalysis modified electrodes have been used in a wide range. In addition to the several methods of electrode modification reported in literature, the sol-gel route offers a possibility of preparing ceramic like films under rather mild conditions. This enhances the possibility of incorporation of temperature sensitive particles such as enzymes, microorganisms, proteins and several other biomolecules into such composite layers, resulting in very inert and stable matrices useful for analytical applications. The present paper, in addition to providing an overview of the various analytical applications of sol-gel processes, presents the fabrication and evaluation, of a novel sol-gel based potentiometric sensor for pH measurement. The performance characteristics of the sol-gel based pH sensor is evaluated using buffers in the pH range 2-10 prepared using standard buffer compositions reported in literature. The results show a linear correlation between negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration and measured millivolt response.