I haven't been able to find a "field applicable" phosphate sensor in the market yet. Seems there are many unsolved challenges such as longevity, signal drift, selectivity, etc for this sensor in field. Do you know of any commercially developed field applicable phosphate sensors? Or the reasons why this type of sensor is hard to develop for field applications? Thanks
Currently, as much as I know there are none commercially available. One of the reasons is the difficulty in the synthesis of its receptors (or ionophores), challenge in obtaining suitable buffer and also its high polarity (which makes it quite difficult to measure especially in water medium due to its solubility).
I also don't know of any commercial sources for this electrode. One reason that it is so difficult to develop an electrode for phosphate is its charge. While, for the most part, monovalent and divalent ions are relatively easier for preparing electrodes, trivalent ions are prone to many difficulties, not the least of which is selectivity. In addition, as you may remember from the Nernst equation, the response slope of a trivalent-ion electrode would be less than 20mV/pPO43-. Thus, the sensitivity of such an electrode would be lower than that of lower valency electrodes.
Essentially your question has been answered by the two colleagues. As an addition, the attached papers may be of interest to you.
Kind regards, Max
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