Sensing in Electroanalysis (K. Vytřas, K. Kalcher, and I.Švancara, eds.), vol.3, pp. 91-103 © Univercity of Pardubice, Pardubice (Czech Republic),2008; ISBN 978-80-7395-087-3 Lithographically-Fabricated Bismuth-Film Electrodes as Disposable Mercury-Free Votammetric Sensors for Trace Analysis of Pb(II) Christos Kokkinos 1 , Anastasios Economou 1 *, Ioannis Raptis 2 , Thanassis Speliotis 3 1 Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Athens, 157 71, Athens, Greece 2 Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR "Demokritos", PO Box 60228, Aghia Paraskevi, Athens 153 10, Greece 3 Institute of Materials Science, NCSR "Demokritos", PO Box 60228, Aghia Paraskevi, Athens 153 10, Greece * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: aeconomo@chem.uoa.gr Abstract This work reports the photolithographic fabrication of disposable bismuth-film electrodes (BiFEs) using a photolithographic thin-film deposition approach. The deposition of the bismuth layer was carried out by sputtering of metallic bismuth on a silicon substrate while the exact geometry of the BiFEs was produced by lithography. The utility of these sensors was tested for the trace determination of Pb(II) by square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) and the relevant chemical and instrumental parameters were investigated. Using the selected conditions, the limit of detection was 1 μg l -1 for Pb(II) at a preconcentration time of 120 s. The proposed BiFEs were successfully applied to the determination of Pb(II) in a tap water sample. These sensors offer wide scope for trace metal analysis in terms of mass-production of mercury-free disposable sensors with performance comparable to their mercury counterparts. Keywords: Stripping voltammetry, Disposable sensors, Bismuth film electrode, Photolithography, Sputtering, Lead