Cost-Effective 3D-Printed-Enabled Fluidic Electrochemical Sensing Platform for Quantitative Electroanalytical Applications

Abstract

3D-printing is an open access manufacturing technology that facilitates prototyping of economical devices for scientific purposes. Coupled with the emergence of commercially available cost-efficient screen-printed electrodes (SPEs), 3D-printing has enabled the fabrication of cost-effective fluidic sensing platforms with removable/disposable electrodes. However, quantitative electrochemical detection of analytes in 3D-printed flow-cells integrated with SPEs is yet to be achieved. In this work, the successful implementation of a cost-effective 3D-printed-enabled fluidic electrochemical sensing platform (3DP-FESP) for the quantitative detection of dopamine (DA) in the presence of uric acid (UA), and ascorbic acid (AA) is demonstrated. The 3DP-FESP consists of a reversibly sealed 3D-printed flow-cell integrated with removable SPEs electrochemically activated to increase sensitivity towards DA. The flow-cell was fabricated through fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D-printing and Embedded SCAffold RemovinG Open Technology (ESCARGOT). The 3DP-FESP was characterized to determine its optimal flow rate and ensure enhancement of the quantitative performance of the SPEs under flow conditions. As a result, the performance of our 3DP-FESP (flow conditions) was better than only activated SPEs (stagnant conditions) for DA detection in the presence of interferents with LODs of 0.05 μM and 0.16 μM, respectively. This demonstrates the potential of our cost-effective 3DP-FESP for enhanced quantitative electroanalytical applications.

Emerging Additive Manufacturing Methods for Wearable Sensors: Opportunities to Expand Access to Personalized Health Monitoring

“…Examples of fully 3D printed wearable devices incorporating all essential components of wearable chemical sensors remain rare, which is largely attributed to the complex nature of such devices. Successful efforts must leverage the unique strengths of various 3D printing techniques for fabricating individual components (e.g., microfluidic networks, [172][173][174] electrical circuits, [140,175,176] sensing modules [79,[177][178][179][180] ) and subsequently integrating these disparate elements into a single, unified platform. In the following discussion, we focus on exemplars of 3D printed wearable biochemical sensors with demonstrated on-body measurement capabilities to emphasize the rapidly increasing sophistication of such sensing platforms.…”

Potentiometric Analysis of Benzalkonium Chloride with 3D Printed Ion-Selective Membranes

“…For example, microfluidic devices have been fabricated with unique and novel designs of channels and device structures. [29][30][31]38 Electrodes and sensors have also been fabricated with 3D printing, relying heavily on the fused-deposition modelling (FDM) approach, with the ability to print metallic and carbon-based electrodes for electroanalysis. [29][30][31]39,40 3D printing is a robust technology that has the following benefits, i) it is a user-friendly technique, ii) it allows for rapid fabrication times, iii) it allows for user-defined control over size and shape of printed material and iv) 3D printers are relatively low-cost.…”

Development of microfluidic devices with integrated electrochemical detectors using 3D printing technology

“…Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, or additive manufacturing, is a versatile way to assemble complex pieces in simple and automated steps. This technology enables the development of mass-produced electrochemical sensors and biosensors [41][42][43] of varying geometries and materials (hybrid-carbon-based [44,45] and stainless-steel-based [46]) for applications in numerous research fields, ranging from medicine [47] to environmental pollutants [48]. In addition, 3D printing techniques allow the production of microchannels and microstructures in a variety of materials with acceptable precision and high resolution [6].…”