One-pot electrosynthesis of polyglycine-like thin film on platinum electrodes as transducer for solid state pH measurements

The anodic oxidation of concentrated glycine based aqueous electrolyte on smooth platinum electrode leads to a strongly grafted polyglycine-like coating on the surface in an irreversible way. Due to the proton affinity towards amino groups of polyglycine (PG), the electrodeposited thin film was used as receptor for solid potentiometric pH sensor. In order to reach local pH measurement, we developed miniaturized microelectrodes on glass substrate thanks to photolithography process. We used silver chloride on silver as the reference electrode. The couple (silver chloride, PG based platinum electrode) of microelectrodes gives linear potentiometric response vs. pH in the range [2–12], reversibly and with a sensitivity of 52.4 mV/pH (for 1 mm electrode size). PG based pH electrode is compared to other organic polymer based pH receptor such as linear polyethylenimine (L-PEI), polyaniline (PANI) and glass membrane.