Electroanalytical properties of screen printed graphite microband electrodes

Abstract

We report the fabrication of screen printed graphite microband electrodes which are electrochemically characterised and critically explored with the electroanalytical applications for the sensing of NADH and nitrite. The screen printed graphite band electrodes consist of graphite microbands printed upon a flexible plastic substrate which are 10mm in length and 100μm in width. The graphite microbands have a critical microscopic dimension imparting microelectrode behaviour whilst the length yields an increase in the current output. Electroanalytical characterisation with the electrochemical detection of NADH and nitrite reveal that experimental limits of detection (3σ) of 0.48 and 0.05μM respectively are possible. The screen printed graphite band electrodes are benchmarked against screen printed graphite macroelectrodes as well as graphite ultramicrobands, where in terms of current density, the band electrodes exhibit a greater response over the former, but not the latter. However, in terms of analytical reproducibility, the band electrodes exhibit an improved response over that of the graphite ultra-microelectrodes.The mass production of disposable microband electrodes holds great promise in electrochemistry, particularly as a base transducer for utilisation in electroanalytical sensing where the benefits of the microscopic domain of the band electrode imparting improvements in the analytical performance can be realised.