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Product Description This digital document is a journal article from Analytica Chimica Acta, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Description: The lower detection limit of polymeric membrane ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) is impaired by zero-current ion fluxes through the organic phase. This adverse effect is largely eliminated by covalently attaching the ionophore to a polymer backbone. To this purpose, the Pb^2^+-selective ligand, 4-tert-butylcalix[4] arene-tetrakis(N,N'-dimethylthioacetamide) is substituted on its upper rim by a diol derivative which is subsequently copolymerized with poly(tetrahydrofuran)diol and 2,2,4-trimethylhexamethylene diisocyanate to the corresponding polyurethane. By measurements on sandwich membranes, it is shown that through binding the ionophore to the polymer, the mobility of Pb^2^+ in the ISE membrane is strongly reduced. As a consequence, the response range of such an ISE is extended by several orders of magnitude. This is the case even when using an internal electrolyte that with an ISE based on a mobile ionophore leads to strong deviations from the linear response because of ion uptake from the sample into the membrane or ion release from the membrane into the sample. With a conventional inner filling solution of 10^-^1M Pb(NO"3)"2, a lower detection limit of 1.7x10^-^9M Pb^2^+ has been achieved in the presence of 10^-^4M Na^+.