Backside Calibration Potentiometry:  Ion Activity Measurements with Selective Supported Liquid Membranes by Calibrating from the Inner Side of the Membrane

In direct potentiometry, the magnitude of the measured potentials is used to determine the composition of the sample. While this places rather formidable demands on the required reproducibility of the associated potential measurements, typically on the order of microvolts, in vitro clinical analyses of blood samples are today successfully performed with direct potentiometry using ion-selective electrodes (ISEs). Unfortunately, most other analytical situations do not permit the sensor to be recalibrated every few minutes, as in environmental monitoring or in vivo measurements, and direct potentiometry is often bound to fail as an accurate method in these circumstances. This paper introduces a novel direction for potentiometric sensing, termed backside calibration potentiometry. Chemical asymmetries across thin supported liquid ISE membranes are assessed by determining the direction of potential drift upon changing the stirring rate on either side of the membrane. Disappearance of this drift indicates the disappearance of concentration gradients across the membrane and is used to determine the sample composition if the solution composition at the backside of the membrane and the interfering ion concentration in the sample are known. For practical determinations, the concentration of either the primary or the interfering ion is varied in the reference solution until the stirring effect disappears. The procedure is demonstrated with a Ca2+-selective membrane using Ba2+ as the dominant interfering ion. Another example includes the determination of Pb2+ in environmental samples where the pH is adjusted to a known level. At pH 4.0, H+ turns out to be the dominant interfering ion. The practical applicability of the method is shown with different environmental water samples, for which the results obtained with the novel method are compared with those obtained by traditional calibration using standard additions. The limitations of the novel method in terms of accuracy and applicable concentration ranges are discussed.