Properties of six derivatives of 1-trifluoroacetylbenzene: [4-(n-butyl)- (1), 4-(n-hexadecyl)- (2), 4-dodecyloxy- (3), 4-(n-dodecylsulfonyl)- (4), N,N-dioctyl-4-trifluoroacetylbenzamide (5), octyl-p-trifluoroacetylbenzoate (6)] as neutral carriers for carbonate ion were examined and compared. The sensitivity towards carbonate ion was for (3) pH dependent. This eliminates (3) from practical applications in clinical analysis. When measuring CO(3)(2-) within the physiological range of human blood using as carriers compounds 1 and 2 the interference of chloride must be taken into account. In the case of carriers 4, 5, 6 this effect is negligible. Electrodes with membranes containing as carriers 2, 4, 5 and 6 were tested in an automatic potentiometric clinical analyser Microlyte 6, KONE. To avoid contamination by atmospheric CO(2) of three aqueous standards (TES, NaCl, NaHCO(3)), pH was adjusted by coulomeric generation of H(+) or OH(-) in a system devoid of carbon dioxide. Recovery of HCO(3)(-) calculated from measured CO(3)(2-) and pH, was investigated in a series of aqueous solutions and spiked bovine serum samples. The correlation between added and recovered concentration of HCO(3)(-) was linear with the intercept close to 0 and slope equal to 1 in aqueous solutions for all ligands and in bovine serum samples only in the case of ligand (2).