All-Solid-State Calcium Solvent Polymeric Membrane Electrode for Low-Level Concentration Measurements

An all-solid-state calcium-selective electrode with a plastic membrane phase containing a calcium ionophore ETH-1001 placed on poly(3-methylthiophene) ion-to-electron transducting layer functionalized to bind calcium cations has been constructed. The obtained potentiometric sensors were characterized with a calibration line of slope close to Nernstian within the activity from 10(-5) to 0.1 M. For Ca2+ activity lower than 10(-5) M, super-Nernstian behavior was observed. The super-Nernstian response that is observed for electrodes with an internal solution strongly binding primary ions was in this case attributed to incorporation of calcium ions in the modified solid-contact phase. With this arrangement, the evaluation of selectivity coefficients much closer to those that depend on the properties of the ion-selective membrane itself was possible.