Nitrite-selective microelectrodes

The development of nitrite-selective liquid membrane microelectrodes based on a synthetic charged ionophore is described. The addition of potassium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate and poly(vinyl chloride) to the membrane phase is essential to lower the ohmic resistance and to prolong the lifetime of the microelectrodes. The detection limits for sodium nitrite solutions without and with an ion background of 0.1M chloride are 10(-5.1) and 10(-4.2)M, respectively. The comparison with macroelectrodes shows that the miniaturization reduces, to some extent, the selectivity and the slopes of the EMF response functions.