Screen-printable porous glass: a new material for electrochemical sensors

A screen-printable porous paste is described. Its use in the development of a solid-state Ag/AgCl electrochemical reference electrode is reported as an example of a typical application. Potassium chloride salt crystals are homogenously dispersed in a commercial thick-film glass paste and printed through a stainless steel stencil. Printed features are fired at 600 °C; a lower temperature than the melting point of the salt crystals, which remain intact. After firing, embedded salt crystals are dissolved away in warm water. The resultant features have a sponge-like appearance, with pore density and size distribution governed by the volume and grain sizes of the salt. In the application described, the porous paste is used as an electrolyte containment structure and membrane support scaffold; key components for miniaturisation of the Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Experiments show the best performing reference electrode maintained a potential with <5 % change over more than five decades of chloride concentration.

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