Abstract
A general theoretical description of the transient behavior of the amperometric Clark oxygen electrode based upon a one‐dimensional spherical model is given in analytical form and compared with existing data. The resulting expressions relate transient characteristics of the sensor to transport properties of the three layers which determine the rate of oxygen diffusion from ambient flowing liquid or semisolid tissue to the surface of the sensor cathode. Criteria are presented by which the errors associated with earlier, less comprehensive models may be estimated. The effects of variation in hemispherical electrode radius are investigated for sensors exhibiting typical transport characteristics. Decreasing this radius is predicted to lead to complete suppression of sensor sensitivity to flow rate, while the dependence of transient characteristics upon flow rate is only partially diminished. Contrary to what might be believed on the basis of intuition, this model predicts that the response time for a typical electrode will decrease with decreasing electrode radius only until the radius approaches 7 μm; thereafter, further reductions in electrode radius are shown to cause the response time to increase.
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