Aerosol Jet Printed Ion-Selective Electrodes for Potassium Detection

This work evaluates a potassium ion-selective electrode (K-ISE) fabricated using Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) and compares its performance with that of a commercial K+-selective electrode (KION). Both sensors exhibit near-Nernstian behavior, with average sensitivities of 57.91 ± 5.07 mV/dec for the AJP device and 57.28 ± 5.07 mV/dec for the commercial electrode, confirming a near-Nernstian K+ response over the tested concentration range. Single-interferent response tests demonstrate that AJP-printed electrodes provide a more stable and less sensitive response to sodium interference (24.37 ± 1.39 mV/dec) compared to KION (33.95 ± 8.95 mV/dec), while showing comparable NH4+ response and a slightly higher response toward urea than KION. Morphological analysis (OM and SEM) reveals that AJP enables smoother, more homogeneous films and improved control over the transducer/membrane interface. Unlike previous studies, this work presents a direct experimental comparison between AJP-fabricated and commercial ISEs under controlled interference conditions relevant to agricultural and environmental matrices. Although the AJP sensors exhibited near-Nernstian behavior and fast response times, their reproducibility was lower than that of the commercial electrodes (RSD = 30.12% vs. 18.45%), indicating that further optimization of the printing and membrane deposition processes is required.