A galvanic gas sensor using poly (ethylene oxide) complex of silver trifluoromethane sulphonate electrolyte

Summary

A galvanic sensor for monitoring nitrogen dioxide was developed by using a poly(ethylene oxide) complex of silver trifluoromethanesulphonate electrolyte. The sensor, which is expressed as Au/P(EO)_4.5 AgCF₃SO₃/Ag, is a small disk (i.d. 13 mm). The polymeric electrolyte film was made by casting the mixture of acetonitrile solutions of both P(EO) (MW 6×10⁵) and AgCF₃SO₃. The working electrode was made by sputtering of gold in argon. The thicknesses of the desposited gold, polymeric electrolyte film and silver are 25 nm, 30 μm and 1 mm, respectively. When the sample gas containing nitrogen dioxide impinges at 20 ml min⁻¹ on the gold cathode, the current flowing in the external circuit was linearly related to the concentration of nitrogen dioxide from 20 ppb to about 10 ppm. The current efficiency of the cell was 0.051%. The cell's response time was about 2 min for 0.5 ppm of nitrogen dioxide.