A point-of-care (POC) device to enable de-centralized diagnostics can effectively reduce the time to treatment, especially in case of infectious diseases. However, many of the POC solutions presented so far do not comply with the ASSURED (affordable, sensitive, specific, user-friendly, rapid and robust, equipment free, and deliverable to users) guidelines that are needed to ensure their on-field deployment.Herein, we present the proof of concept of a self-powered platform that operates using the analysed fluid, mimicking a blood sample, for early stage detection of HIV-1 infection. The platform contains a smart interfacing circuit to operate an ultra-sensitive electrolyte-gated field-effect transistor (EGOFET) as a sensor and facilitates an easy and affordable readout mechanism. The sensor transduces the biorecognition event taking place at the gate electrode functionalized with the antibody against the HIV-1 p24 capsid protein, while it is powered via paper-based biofuel cell (BFC) that extracts the energy from the analysed sample itself. The self-powered platform is demonstrated to achieve detection of HIV-1 p24 antigens in fM range, suitable for early diagnosis. From these developments, a cost-effective digital POC device able to detect the transition from "healthy" to "infected" state at single-molecule precision, with no dependency on external power sources while using minimal components and simpler approach, is foreseen.
Potentiometric sensors operate as galvanic cells where the voltage is spontaneously generated as a function of the sample composition. We show here that energy can be harvested, stored during the sensing process without external power, and physically isolated from the sensor circuit for later readout. This is accomplished by placing an electronic capacitor as a portable transduction component between the indicator and the reference electrode at the point where one would ordinarily connect the high-input-impedance voltmeter. The voltage across this isolated capacitor indicates the originally measured ion activity and can be read out conveniently, for example, using a simple handheld multimeter. The capacitor is shown to maintain the transferred charge for hours after its complete disconnection from the sensor. The concept is demonstrated to detect the physiological concentrations of K + in artificial sweat samples. The methodology provides a readout principle that could become very useful in portable form factors and opens possibilities for potentiometric detection in point-of-care applications and inexpensive sensing devices where an external power source is not desired.
A constant potential capacitive readout of solid-contact ionselective electrodes (SC-ISE) allows one to obtain easily identifiable current transients that can be integrated to obtain a charge vs logarithmic activity relationship. The resulting readout can therefore be much more sensitive than traditional open-circuit potentiometry. Unfortunately, however, comparatively long measurement times and significant baseline current drifts make it currently difficult to fully realize the promise of this technique. We show here that this challenge is overcome by placing the SC-ISE in series with an electronic capacitor, with pH probes as examples. Kirchhoff's law is shown to be useful to choose an adequate range of added capacitances so that it dominates the overall cell value. Two different ion-to-electron transducing materials, functionalized single-wall carbon nanotubes (f-SWCNTs) and poly(3octylthiophene) (POT), were explored as solid-contact transducing layers. The established SC-ISE-based f-SWCNT transducer is found to be compatible with a wide range of external capacitances up to 100 μF, while POT layers require a narrower range of 1− 4.7 μF. Importantly, the time for a charging transient to reach equilibrium was found to be less than 10 s, which is dramatically faster than without added electronic component. Owing to the ideal behavior of capacitor, the response current decays rapidly to zero, making the determination of the integrated charge practically applicable.
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