No abstract

No abstract

Nitrite (NO 2 − ) has been extensively applied in agricultural and industrial products and is often found in various foodstuff, tap water, biological samples and environmental systems. However, NO 2 − as a toxic contaminant probably threaten the human health by producing highly carcinogenic N-nitrosamines. Compared with the traditional analytical techniques, electroanalytical method has considerable advantages such as cost-effective, rapidness, facile operation, and easy miniaturization. Graphene nanocomposites have significant synergistic electrocatalytic effect toward the nitrite redox, which could eventually amplify the electrochemical response signals, and improve the selectivity, sensitivity, and practicability for the nitrite detection in various real samples. The recent developments on graphene-based nitrite electrochemical sensors are reviewed from the view of sensing materials, including graphene, metal nanoparticle/graphene composites, nanostructured metal compound/graphene composites, polymer/graphene composites, MOF/graphene composites, enzyme/graphene composites, MWCNT/graphene composites, and electron mediator/graphene composites. Moreover, the sensing performances including detection ranges, limit of detection (LOD) and sensitivity are tabulated. Finally, the major drawbacks, opportunities and challenges of graphene-based nitrite electrochemical sensors are also discussed.

This study reports on a novel passive ceramic-based semi-dry electrode prototype for electroencephalography (EEG) applications. With the help of capillary forces of the porous ceramics pillars, the semi-dry electrodes build a stable electrode/scalp interface by penetrating hair and releasing a small amount saline in a controlled and sustained manner. The semi-dry electrode/scalp impedances were low and stable (44.4 ± 16.9 kΩ, n=10), and the variation between nine different positions was less 5 kΩ. The semi-dry electrodes have shown non-polarization characteristics and the maximum difference of equilibrium potential between eight electrodes was 579 μV. The semi-dry electrodes demonstrated long-term stability, and the impedance only increased by 20 kΩ within 8 h. EEG signals were simultaneously recorded using a 9-channel gel-based electrode and semi-dry electrode arrays setup on ten subjects. The average temporal cross-correlation between them in the eyes open/closed and the steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) paradigm were 0.938 ± 0.037 and 0.937 ± 0.027 respectively. Spectral analyses revealed similar response patterns with expected functional responses. Together with the advantages of quick setup, self-application and cleanliness, the result suggests the semi-dry electrode is suitable for emerging real-world EEG applications, such as braincomputer interfaces and wearable EEGs.