Solid State Amperometric Sensors for the Detection of Hazardous Compound

摘要

Miniaturized amperometric chemical sensors designed to detect trace levels of hazardous vapors are being developed by two related approaches. Active sensors have been fabricated with microelectronic techniques on Nafion, a solid organic proton conductor. A variety of working electrode designs were fabricated with different grid densities in order to investigate the relationship between sensor geometry and analytical performance. Although sensitive sensors have been fabricated utilizing Nafion as a solid electrolyte support, there are certain properties of Nafion which may ultimately limit its applicability to micro-fabrication techniques (e.g., changes in volume following contact with moisture). Alternative solid electrolyte materials are being incorporated into water-free amperometric sensors. RbAg sub 4 I sub 5 , a solid electrolyte, has been successfully used in a solid state amperometric sensor with a platinum working electrode and a silver counter and reference electrode. These sensors were evaluated in terms of response time, sensitivity, and lifetime. 7 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs. (ERA citation 13:022525)