We were asked a very interesting question today at ZP to list the pros and cons of screen printed electrodes. The questions was '...what are the positives and negatives of screen printed electrodes when used for amperometric sensing...'
This was an interesting question so we answered it below:
Pros
- Screen printed electrodes can be low cost once a lot of engineering efforts has been been invested into them see Hyper Value and Value Sensor.
Cons
- The perceived low cost of screen printed electrodes means that the quality of electrodes in the R and D community is in fact not that high.
- There are companies that can print electrodes.
- Many screen printing companies are not able to electrochemical test screen printed electrodes.
- The quality of screen printed electrodes can be high.
- Quality can be variable both from screen printed electrode to electrode and batch to batch variation, especially those offered to the R and D community
- Applicable to amperometric and potentiometric sensors
- Applicable to amperometric and potentiometric sensors, but if the manufacturing is variable it will effect the sensors raw signal, please see video.