Solid-state internal reference electrode based on quinhydrone for hydrogen sensor with acid-doped polybenzimidazole

Sébastien Rosini (1) , Elisabeth Siebert (1)

1 LEPMI - Laboratoire d'Electrochimie et de Physico-chimie des Matériaux et des Interfaces

An electrode consisting of a mixture of quinhydrone (QH) and polybenzimidazole (PBI) with carbon was investigated as a solid reference electrode for hydrogen sensors. The vibrational behaviour of the polybenzimidazole/quinhydrone blend was investigated by infrared spectroscopy. The results suggest the existence of hydroquinone in the blend. The quinone/hydroquinone redox couple was evidenced by cyclic voltammetry. The potential of the solid-state reference electrode was found to be very stable over a period of 700 h. The drift was less than 0.1 mV per day. This electrode was successfully implemented in a potentiometric sensor. The standard potential was of the order of −550 mV at room temperature and increased as a function of the temperature with a slope of 1 mV/°C. The standard potential was also insensitive to changes in relative humidity (rh) in the sample gas over a period of 1 day.

Mots clés: Quinhydrone; Hydrogen sensor; Reference electrode; Polybenzimidazole

Domaines: Matériaux

Sébastien Rosini, Elisabeth Siebert. Solid-state internal reference electrode based on quinhydrone for hydrogen sensor with acid-doped polybenzimidazole. Electrochimica Acta, 2004, 49 (4), pp. 525-536. ⟨10.1016/j.electacta.2003.09.006⟩. ⟨hal-00417867⟩