We have designed new optical membrane sensor which is composed of cellulose triacetate polymer as a membrane support, o-nitophenyloctyl ether as a membrane plasticizer and sym-(decyl)(2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyloxy)dibenzo-16-crown-5 (1) as a Na+ ion selective chromoionophore. This type of membrane was found to selectively respond to Na+ in the detection limit of 10(-5) M (1 M = 1 mol dm(-3)) with no significant interference from Li+ and K+ ions.