Hydrophilic
ion-exchanger membranes with a high ion-exchange capacity
not only find numerous applications in ion separations, but also have
interesting properties when used as sensing membranes of ion-selective
electrodes (ISEs). As pointed out in the literature, the hydrophilic
nature of these membranes may reduce biofouling of ISE sensing membranes
as caused by electrically neutral, hydrophobic interferents. This
work shows that hydrophilic high-capacity ion-exchanger membranes
are more resistant to Donnan failure (i.e., the limitation of the
upper detection limit by co-ion transfer into the sensing membrane)
than both hydrophobic ionophore-doped and hydrophobic ionophore-free
ion-exchanger membranes. Nernstian responses of hydrophilic anion-exchanger
membranes were found for anions as large as 2.0 nm, in spite of the
cross-linked nature of the anion exchanger that was used. This shows
that the high resistance of hydrophilic anion-exchangers to Donnan
failure caused by cations such as tetrabutylammonium is not the result
of size exclusion. For typical ions, the hydrophilicity of the anion
exchanger does not play a decisive factor either. Instead, the excellent
resistance to Donnan failure exhibited by hydrophilic ion exchange
membranes is primarily caused by the high activity of exchangeable
ions in the ion exchanger phase, which disfavors partitioning of ions
of opposite charge (along with target ions) from samples into these
sensing membranes. The absence of Donnan failure caused by hydrophobic
co-ions may be of substantial benefit for measurements in biological
samples.