A review of screen-printed silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) reference electrodes potentially suitable for environmental potentiometric sensors

Abstract

The screen-printed (SP), reference electrode (RE) has been shown to be a crucial element of potentiometric sensors but it is also the stumbling block for reliable and accurate SP sensors. The easiest, most common and most environmentally friendly, type of RE is the Silver/Silver Chloride (Ag/AgCl) RE. Unfortunately, until now the only reliable RE of this kind is the conventional, liquid or gel-filled type. However, for most environmental and soil applications the use of the conventional RE is not an option, which raises the demand for a robust, rugged and low-cost version to replace the conventional RE. This paper presents a review of the various attempts to produce reliable, SP, Ag/AgCl REs, and explain why almost all of them never reach the commercialisation stage. The paper provides an overview of the main challenges that need to be overcome, details of the electrode’s construction, an analytical comparison of their performance in terms of chloride susceptibility, cross-sensitivity and lifetime, and their suitability in different applications depending on their performance characteristics.