Ammonia nitrogen is a common contaminant in water and its determination is important for environmental protection. In this paper, an electrochemical sensor based on an ultramicro interdigitated array electrode (UIAE) chip with optimized construction was fabricated with Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) technology and developed to realize the detection of ammonia nitrogen in water. The effects of spacing-to-width ratio and width of the working electrode on UIAE’s electrochemical characteristics and its ammonia nitrogen detection performance were studied by finite element simulation and experiment. The results demonstrated that the smaller the spacing-to-width ratio, the stronger generation–collection effect, and the smaller the electrode width, the stronger the edge effect, which led to an easier steady-state reach, a higher response current, and better ammonia nitrogen determination performance. The fabricated UIAE chip with optimized construction showed the linear detection range of 0.15 mg/L~2.0 mg/L (calculated as N), the sensitivity of 0.4181 μA·L·mg−1, and good anti-interference performance, as well as a long lifetime. UIAE based on bare Pt was successfully applied to ammonia nitrogen detection in water by optimizing structure, which might broaden the methods of ammonia nitrogen detection in water.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.