A conductive silver membrane for electrochemical detection of free chlorine in aqueous solution

A mixture of polydopamine (PDA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) are used as the adhesive, wetting, and reducing agent simultaneously to fabricate a conductive silver membrane. The conformal coating of PDA/PEI on individual polypropylene fibers of polypropylene micromembrane (PPMM) renders the latter to be hydrophilic for subsequent electroless silver deposition. The resulting conductive silver membrane demonstrates impressive electric conductivity in both X and Z directions. The thickness of conformal silver overcoat is 250 nm and the effective loading is 2.4 mg/cm2. The mechanical strength of conducive silver membrane is similar to that of pristine PPMM. Both cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy on the conductive silver membrane reveal a large electrochemical active surface area. To validate its usefulness as a robust soft electrode, the conductive silver membrane is evaluated for the detection of chlorine in aqueous solution in which a low detection limit of 0.07 ppm and a wide detection range of 0.1–20 ppm are validated.