Calibration-free Solid-State Ion-Selective Electrode Based on a Polarized PEDOT/PEDOT-S-Doped Copolymer as Back Contact

Solid-contact ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) have the inherent advantage of being miniaturized in addition to maintaining high selectivity and sensitivity of the ionophore-based ISE. The major disadvantage of ISEs is the necessity of performing a calibration curve (varying the intercept in the linear calibration curve equation) each time before running experiments, which limits their application as one-time disposable sensors or for use in remote water sample analysis. To overcome these challenges, we designed a unique back contact made of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) and 4-(2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxin-2-ylmethoxy)-1-butanesulfonic acid, sodium salt (EDOT-S). The calibration-free ISEs showed near Nernstian responses of 57.2 +/- 0.2 mV/log [K+] and 28.5 +/- 0.3 mV/log [Ca2+], while maintaining their respective selectivity against major interfering ions. The detection limits for Ca2+ and K+ ISEs were 0.45 +/- 0.01 and 1.68 +/- 0.18 mu M, respectively. The charging cycles of the PEDOT: PEDOT-S back contact allowed us to fix the background potential at a desired fixed intercept value across different ionophores (K+, Ca2+). This protocol was used to determine the K+ and Ca2+ contents in creek water samples. The activity and concentration of [Ca2+] and [K+] in a local creek was found to be 257 +/- 7.3 and 28.1 +/- 1.1 mu M, respectively.