Presented here is a sensing membrane consisting of a modified merocyanine photoacid polymer and a calcium ionophore in plasticized poly(vinyl chloride). This membrane is shown to actively exchange protons with calcium ions when switched ON after illumination at 470 nm, and the exchange can be followed by UV–vis spectroscopy. The sensing membrane shows no response in the ON state when calcium ions are absent. The limit of detection of the sensor is 5.0 × 10–4 M with an upper detection limit of 1.0 M. Thus, we demonstrate for the first time the use of a visible light activated, lipophilic photoacid polymer in an ion-sensing membrane for calcium ions, which highly discriminates potassium, sodium, and magnesium ions.

The concept of locally heated polymeric membrane potentiometric sensors is introduced here for the first time. This is accomplished in an all solid state sensor configuration, utilizing poly(3-octylthiophene) as the intermediate layer between the ion-selective membrane and underlying substrate that integrates the heating circuitry. Temperature pulse potentiometry (TPP) gives convenient peak-shaped analytical signals and affords an additional dimension with these sensors. Numerous advances are envisioned that will benefit the field. The heating step is shown to give an increase in the slope of the copper-selective electrode from 31 to 43 mV per 10-fold activity change, with a reproducibility of the heated potential pulses of 1% at 10 μM copper levels and a potential drift of 0.2 mV/h. Importantly, the magnitude of the potential pulse upon heating the electrode changes as a function of the copper activity, suggesting an attractive way for differential measurement of these devices. The heat pulse is also shown to decrease the detection limit by half an order of magnitude.

Here, we report on a highly sensitive potentiometric detection of DNA hybridization. The new assay uses a low-volume solid-contact silver ion-selective electrode (Ag⁺-ISE) to monitor the depletion of silver ions induced by the biocatalytic reaction of the alkaline-phosphatase enzyme tag. The resultant potential change of the Ag⁺-ISE, thus, serves as the hybridization signal. Factors affecting the potentiometric hybridization response have been optimized to offer a detection limit of 50 fM (0.2 amol) DNA target. The new potentiometric assay was applied successfully to the monitoring of the 16S rRNA of E. coli pathogenic bacteria to achieve a low detection limit of 10 CFU in the 4 μL sample. Such potentiometric transduction of biocatalytically induced metallization processess holds great promise for monitoring various bioaffinity assays involving common enzyme tags.

Paper-based ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) are simple, flexible, and cost-efficient in comparison to conventional solid-contact ISEs. Yet, paper-based ISEs have poor limits of detection (in the micromolar range) relative to conventional solid-contact ISEs. Here we describe the construction and optimization of ISEs based on commercially available filter paper modified with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), sputtered gold, and conductive polymer poly(3-octylthiophene) to support an ion-selective membrane. The ion-selective membrane presented here is based on the copolymer methyl methacrylate-decyl methacrylate (MMA-DMA). The copolymer MMA-DMA is highly water-repellent and has a low coefficient of diffusion, which makes it particularly suitable for the creation of sensors with high performance in reaching low limits of detection. Three different configurations of the electrodes have been characterized by using contact angle surface analysis, oxygen influence, and testing for the presence of a water layer. Paper-strip ISEs for cadmium, silver, and potassium ions were developed with groundbreaking limits of detection of 1.2, 25.1, and 11.0 nM, respectively. In addition to such low limits of detection, paper-strip ISEs display high selectivity for their ion of interest and high reproducibility.

A simple procedure for the development of a range of polymeric ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) with low detection limits is presented. The electrodes were prepared by using a plasticizer-free methyl methacrylate−decyl methacrylate copolymer as membrane matrix and poly(3-octylthiophene) as intermediate layer deposited by solvent casting on gold sputtered copper electrodes as a solid inner contact. Five different electrodes were developed for Ag+, Pb2+, Ca2+, K+, and I-, with detection limits mostly in the nanomolar range. In this work, the lowest detection limits reported thus far with solid contact ISEs for the detection of silver (2.0 × 10-9M), potassium (10-7 M), and iodide (10-8 M) are presented. The developed electrodes exhibited a good response time and excellent reproducibility.

We here report on the first example of an aptamer-based potentiometric sandwich assay of proteins. The measurements are based on CdS quantum dot labels of the secondary aptamer, which were determined with a novel solid-contact Cd2+-selective polymer membrane electrode after dissolution with hydrogen peroxide. The electrode exhibited cadmium ion detection limits of 100 pM in 100 mL samples and of 1 nM in 200 μL microwells, using a calcium-selective electrode as a pseudoreference electrode. As a prototype example, thrombin was measured in 200 μL samples with a lower detection limit of 0.14 nM corresponding to 28 fmol of analyte. The results show great promise for the potentiometric determination of proteins at very low concentrations in microliter samples.

Potentiometric sensors are today sufficiently well understood and optimized to reach ultratrace level (subnanomolar) detection limits for numerous ions. In many cases of practical relevance, however, a high electrolyte background hampers the attainable detection limits. A particularly difficult sample matrix for potentiometric detection is seawater, where the high saline concentration forms a major interfering background and reduces the activity of most trace metals by complexation. This paper describes for the first time a hyphenated system for the online electrochemically modulated preconcentration and matrix elimination of trace metals, combined with a downstream potentiometric detection with solid contact polymeric membrane ion-selective microelectrodes. Following the preconcentration at the bismuth-coated electrode, the deposited metals are oxidized and released to a medium favorable to potentiometric detection, in this case calcium nitrate. Matrix interferences arising from the saline sample medium are thus circumvented. This concept is successfully evaluated with cadmium as a model trace element and offers potentiometric detection down to low parts per billion levels in samples containing 0.5 M NaCl background electrolyte.