Clark electrode

It improves on a bare platinum electrode by use of a

membrane to reduce fouling and metal plating onto the
platinum.[3]

1 History
Leland Clark (Professor of Chemistry, Antioch College,
Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Fels Research Institute, Yellow
Springs, Ohio) had developed the rst bubble oxygenator
for use in cardiac surgery. However, when he came to
publish his results, his article was refused by the editor
since the oxygen tension in the blood coming out from
the device could not be measured. This instigated Clark
to develop the oxygen electrode.[4]
The electrode, when implanted in vivo, will reduce oxygen and thus required stirring in order to maintain an
equilibrium with the environment. Severinghaus improved the design by adding a stirred cuvette in a thermostat. A discrepancy between the measured partial pressure of oxygen (pO2 ) between blood samples and gaseous
mixtures of identical pO2 , the modied electrode required calibration; consequently a microtonometer was
added to the water thermostat.[4]

O2 + 2 H+ + 2e H2 O2

2 Application
Electron ow to oxygen as a result of oxidative phosphorylation can be demonstrated using an oxygen electrode.
The electrode compartment is isolated from the reaction
chamber by a thin Teon membrane; the membrane is
permeable to molecular oxygen and allows this gas to
reach the cathode, where it is electrolytically reduced.[5]

Clark-type electrode: (A) Pt- (B) Ag/AgCl-electrode (C) KCl electrolyte (D) Teon membrane (E) rubber ring (F) voltage supply
(G) galvanometer

The reduction allows a current to ow; this creates a potential dierence which is recorded on a atbed chart
The Clark electrode [1][2] is an electrode that measures recorder. The trace is thus a measure of the oxygen acoxygen on a catalytic platinum surface using the net reac- tivity of the reaction mixture. The current owing is proportional to the activity of oxygen provided the solution
tion:
is stirred constantly (stir bar) to minimize the formation
of an unstirred layer next to the membrane.[5] A typical

O2 + 4 e + 2 H2 O 4 OH
eld of application is closed chamber respirometry.
1

In practice

A voltage of around 0.7 V is used to allow linearity between the measurements of the current and oxygen concentration. Lifespan is limited to around 3 years due
to the Teon membrane, which becomes encoated with
protein.[6]

References

[1] Clark Jr, LC; Wolf, R; Granger, D; Taylor, Z (1953).

Continuous recording of blood oxygen tensions by polarography. Journal of applied physiology 6 (3): 18993.
PMID 13096460.
[2] Severinghaus, JW; Astrup, PB (1986). History of
blood gas analysis. IV. Leland Clarks oxygen electrode. Journal of clinical monitoring 2 (2): 12539.
doi:10.1007/BF01637680. PMID 3519875.
[3] KANWISHER, JOHN (1959). Polarographic oxygen
electrode. Limnology and Oceanography 4 (2): 210217.
[4] Severinghaus J. The Invention and Development of Blood
Gas Analysis Apparatus. Anesthesiology. 2002;97:253-6
[5] Trinity College Dublin, Biochemistry Laboratory Manual
for Senior Freshman Science, 2005-2006. www.tcd.ie/
biochemistry
[6] McFadyen, J. Respiratory Gas Analysis in Theatre. Updates in Anesthesia. 2000;11.. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02.

External links
Biosensors & Bioelectronics: Leland Clark
Clark Oxygen Electrode, precursor to todays modern biosensors - broken link

EXTERNAL LINKS

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File:Clark_Electrode.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Clark_Electrode.png License: FAL Contributors: Electrochemical device for chemical analysis. United States Patent Specication 2,913,386 Original artist: Leland C. Clark

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