The development and characterisation of some novel amperometric sensors

Chapter 1 of this thesis serves as a general\ud introduction to electrode processes and to some of the\ud electrochemical techniques used for the\ud characterisation and development of amperometric\ud sensors. A brief review of recent applications of\ud modified electrodes in the field of electroanalysis is\ud also presented.\ud \ud The remainder of the thesis is divided into three\ud sections. The first of these comprises chapters 2 and\ud 3. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and\ud characterisation of a series of polymers based\ud on ruthenium-bound 4-vinylpyridine/styrene copolymers.\ud An investigation into factors that affect charge\ud transport rates and processes through thin films of\ud these polymers on glassy carbon electrodes, using\ud cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry and sampled\ud current voltammetry, is also presented. Chapter 3\ud describes the optimisation of the performance of these\ud polymer modified electrodes as sensors for the nitrite\ud ion, using the rotating disk electrode and\ud flow-injection amperometric detection techniques.\ud \ud The second section of this thesis comprises the\ud development of ruthenium dioxide-based modified\ud electrodes for the electrocatalytic detection of\ud alcohols and selected saccharide antibiotics. The\ud ruthenium dioxide modifier is also confined in a\ud graphite-epoxy matrix to yield a stable, polishable\ud sensor for the saccharide antibiotics.\ud \ud Finally, chapter 5 describes the development of,\ud and investigation into, two sensors for the detection\ud of glucose. The first of these is based on the\ud electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose at a ruthenium\ud dioxide-modified graphite-epoxy electrode surface,\ud while the second involves a novel one-step fabrication\ud of a glucose sensor based on the entrapment of the\ud enzyme glucose oxidase within a poly(ester sulfonic\ud acid) coating