Effect of sintering technology on the stability of solution-filled external pressure balanced reference electrode

Abstract

• The hot-pressing technology is an excellent method for preparation of Ag/AgCl electrode. • The reliability of reference electrode could be improved by adjusting the technical parameters. • The uniform distribution of the Ag and AgCl phases could be accelerated establishing the balance. • The hot-pressing reference electrode was validated via the external pressure balanced structure. Ag/AgCl reference electrodes were fabricated by adjusting the sintering method and particle size of the starting powder. Reversibility, reproducibility, long-time stability, resistance, Cl - response and temperature response were examined. The results suggested that the reference electrode fabricated by hot-pressing technology showed reliable performance, compared with the electrode obtained using pressing and sintering technology. Moreover, based on the optimal sintering technology, the reliability of the reference electrode was further improved by selecting a much smaller particle size of Ag and a larger particle size of AgCl powder. These improvements were attributed to the uniform distribution of the Ag and AgCl phases, accelerating the balance.