Plastic Chip Electrode: An Emerging Multipurpose Electrode Platform

The properties of electrodes play a crucial role in the processes occurring on them. Therefore, a variety of materials have been tried as electrodes. Carbon composite materials are among the most admired ones. Use of composites as electrode material dates back to the mid of the last century when polymer-carbon composites were tried as general-purpose electrode platforms and epoxy impregnated graphite paste/ solid electrodes were tried in polarography. Later the composite electrodes have seen several phases of development. Plastic Chip Electrode (PCE) is a class of polymer composite electrode developed by our group. This monographic review gives a bird's eye account of polymer composite electrodes and appurtenant work, followed by elaborating on various aspects and state-of-the-art plastic chip electrodes. Conventional electrodes are now falling behind in meeting the increasing technological demands. Innovative and tailored electrodes are believed to be the most promising solution to the problem. Polymer composite electrodes are an optimistic class of tailored electrodes. This review outlines a bird-eye account of the carbon polymer composites and discusses the state-of-the-art on the Plastic Chip Electrode (PCE) comprehensively. PCE is a bulk conducting, self-standing, composite electrode fabricated by a spontaneous solvent-based method. The application of PCE as a multipurpose electrode platform is discussed here.image