Development of NH4+-sensitive polymer membranes for long-term performance microsensor

This paper describes the development of NH4+-sensitive membranes based on various polymer materials incorporating nonactine as the ionophore for long-term performance CHEMFETs. Different composition of membranes based on plasticized PVC, carboxylated PVC, plasticized PVC modified by decylmethacrylate, polysiloxane and Siloprene were studied. Although polysiloxane membrane presented the most improved adhesion to the chip surface, the Siloprene membrane was successfully applied to design durable NH4+-sensitive CHEMFETs. These sensors showed NH4+-responses with good selectivity even after 14 months of continuous exposure to conditioning electrolyte.