Performance Investigation of Screen-Printed Carbon Electrodes Activated by MES-Acid

Carbon is a well-known material for its properties, versatility, availability, and wide range of applications. Screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) have several attractive properties like mass production, price effectiveness, and technical properties. However, SPCEs performance usually needs to be enhanced with several approaches, such as modifying with nanocomposite materials, electrochemical activation, or doping. In this work, an investigation focused on the effect of 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic-acid (MES) – electrochemical activation of SPCEs was conducted. Electrochemical methods, i.e., cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy, were utilized as characterization techniques. This study utilizes the concept of charge transfer resistance Ret and its drop as a measure to assess the enhancement in conductivity. The results show a significant enhancement in charge transfer resistance (R
ct
). For graphite electrodes, Ret was reduced by 52% after pretreatment. Meanwhile, the R
ct
dropped by 54% for the carbon nanotube-modified graphite electrodes.