Microamperometric solid-electrolyte CO2 gas sensors

A new type of solid polymer electrolyte based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)-tetrabutylammonium perchloate (TBAP) system has been developed. Such polymeric solid electrolytes exhibit ionic conductivity of the order of 10(-4) Omega (-1) cm(-1) at room temperature. At proper content of each component in the solid-electrolyte, the polymeric film has a porous network microstructure of three dimensions, a good level of mechanical properties and dimensional stability. The full-solid-state microamperometric CO2 gas sensor contains two coplanar electrodes coated with a thin layer of PAN-DMSO-TBAP solid-electrolyte: an Au microdisc as working electrode and an Ag ring counter/reference electrode. This study has shown that the integrated two-electrode assembly can be used for direct amperometric determination of the CO2 concentration in the gas phase. Also, such full-solid-state electrochemical gas sensors possess their own unique and advantageous properties. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.