Fabrication, Potentiometric Characterization, and Application of Screen-Printed RuO₂ pH Electrodes for Water Quality Testing

Abstract

Screen-printed sensing electrodes attract much attention for water pollution monitoring due to their small size, physical and chemical durability, and low cost. This paper presents the fabrication and broad potentiometric characterization of RuO2 pH sensing electrodes deposited by screen printing on alumina substrates and sintered in the 800–900 °C temperature range. All the fabricated electrodes showed close to Nernstian sensitivity, good linearity, fast response, small drift, low hysteresis, and low cross-sensitivity toward various interfering cations and anions. Furthermore, decreasing the sintering temperature led to better adhesion of the RuO2 layer and a negligible response to interfering ions. The measurements in real-life samples from different water sources showed that the fabricated electrodes are on par with conventional glass electrodes with a maximum deviation of 0.11 pH units, thus indicating their potential for application in water quality monitoring.

Keywords

• ruthenium oxide
• screen printing
• pH electrode
• potentiometric sensor
• sintering temperature
• water pollution monitoring