Accounts in 3D‐Printed Electrochemical Sensors: Towards Monitoring of Environmental Pollutants

Abstract

Heavy metal ions, small organic molecules and inorganic pollutants are some environmentally hazardous compounds that negatively impact the ecosystem and public health, owing to their high toxicity, persistency and bioaccumulation. This makes it essential to develop rapid, simple, low‐cost and sensitive devices for in situ monitoring of these toxic contaminants. In this sense, 3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique, which is transforming the way that materials are turned into functional devices by prototyping bespoke 3D materials via layer‐by‐layer deposition. This technology can offer enormous potential to environmental devices, where electrochemical sensing platforms have been on the rise, as they offer decentralized and tailored fabrication of on‐demand, low‐cost, at‐point‐of‐use systems. Although this research is still in an early stage, this Minireview aims to point out the most widely used additive manufacturing technology and materials for 3D‐printed electrode fabrication, as well as some pivotal activation procedural steps necessary to enhance their electroanalytical capabilities. Indeed, the potential of 3D‐printed electrochemical sensors to monitor a range of important hazardous pollutants in aqueous samples is reported, visualizing the future of this technology to develop integrated low‐cost analytical electronic systems for direct environmental detection in remote areas of the globe.

3D-Printed COVID-19 immunosensors with electronic readout

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, no references about the use of 3D printing technology for the development of COVID-19 sensing systems have been reported yet. In this regard, 3D printing technology is currently revolutionizing the way to manufacture electronic devices since provides a fast-large-scale eco-friendly production of customized-shape electronic devices with minimised waste [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] . Huge advantage of 3D printing is that 3D devices containing files can be send electronically around the world —for example, to the International Space Station— at the speed of light and printed locally [31] .…”

“…Concretely, 3D-printed G/PLA electrodes are very appealing transducers since they combine i) electrochemical performances comparable and even better than those displayed by other conventional high-cost commercially available cabon-based electrodes ( i.e. , glassy carbon electrode or screen-printed electrodes) [34] , [35] , [36] with ii) the custom and large-scale benefits of 3D printing technology [28] , [37] . As a proof case study, the COVID-19 global pandemic event has been considered.…”

Atomic Layer Deposition of Electrocatalytic Insulator Al2O3 on Three-Dimensional Printed Nanocarbons

“…Through this manufacturing process, a relatively short duration is required to transform a conceptual design to the final product. Nevertheless, for electrochemical purposes, the 3D printed product should possess an electroactive surface with sufficiently high electrical conductivity. , As such, carbon/PLA composite conductive filaments essentially emerged as favorable selections to produce 3D printed carbon-based electrodes, followed by chemical, − electrochemical, or thermal treatment , to remove an adequate amount of the insulating PLA, as an activation step for the as-printed electrodes. However, to elevate the performance of the electrodes, modifications by additional materials are needed to induce the desired properties.…”

Versatile Design of Functional Organic–Inorganic 3D‐Printed (Opto)Electronic Interfaces with Custom Catalytic Activity

“…[21,22,23,24,25] Concretely, fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the most employed 3D printing strategies for electrodes development due to the current availability of conductive carbon-based nanocomposite filaments. [26,27] Nowadays, 3D-printed nanocomposite carbon electrodes (3D-nCEs) made of grapheneThe ability to combine organic and inorganic components in a single material represents a great step toward the development of advanced (opto)electronic systems. Nowadays, 3D-printing technology has generated a revolution in the rapid prototyping and low-cost fabrication of 3D-printed electronic devices.…”

“…[21,22,23,24,25] Concretely, fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the most employed 3D printing strategies for electrodes development due to the current availability of conductive carbon-based nanocomposite filaments. [26,27] Nowadays, 3D-printed nanocomposite carbon electrodes (3D-nCEs) made of graphene…”