Electrochemical Sensor for Methamphetamine Detection Using Laser-Induced Porous Graphene Electrode

Abstract

A 3D porous graphene structure was directly induced by CO2 laser from the surface of Kapton tape (carbon source) supported by polyethylene terephthalate (PET) laminating film. A highly flexible laser-induced porous graphene (LI-PGr) electrode was then fabricated via a facile one-step method without reagent and solvent in a procedure that required no stencil mask. The method makes pattern design easy, and production cost-effective and scalable. We investigated the performance of the LI-PGr electrode for the detection of methamphetamine (MA) on household surfaces and in biological fluids. The material properties and morphology of LI-PGr were analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) and Raman spectroscopy. The LI-PGr electrode was used as the detector in a portable electrochemical sensor, which exhibited a linear range from 1.00 to 30.0 µg mL−1 and a detection limit of 0.31 µg mL−1. Reproducibility was good (relative standard deviation of 2.50% at 10.0 µg mL−1; n = 10) and anti-interference was excellent. The sensor showed good precision and successfully determined MA on household surfaces and in saliva samples.

Recent Advances in the Development of Portable Electrochemical Sensors for Controlled Substances

“…The portable devices (with one or more potentiostats within) were sourced from PalmSens (Houten, The Netherlands). Their sizes are conveniently small enough that other researchers have also used them or adapted them for constructing portable electrochemical devices for the sensing and analysis of illicit drugs [ 51 , 52 ]. They can be interfaced with computers and mobile phones or tablets easily, enabling facile data processing and analysis.…”

“…A group in Thailand found a simple and very economical way to make a portable electrochemical sensor for methamphetamine [ 52 ]. It has been known that polyimide films, even commercial ones, can be turned into porous graphene structures, which were found to be excellent electrical conductors with a very large and specific surface area [ 55 ].…”

Review—Lab-in-a-Mouth and Advanced Point-of-Care Sensing Systems: Detecting Bioinformation from the Oral Cavity and Saliva

“…184 In addition, a fast and simple assay for in situ measurement of salivary thiocyanate ions was presented using a colorimetric paper-based sensing platform. 180 The developed paper-based sensing platform was based on a colored complexation reaction between iron (III) and thiocyanate under acidic conditions and a scanner was employed as a detection device for image analysis. The proposed method showed the LOD of thiocyanate as 0.06 mM at the optimal conditions and was also applied to measure thiocyanate in human saliva samples.…”

Graphene-Based Electrochemical Sensors for Psychoactive Drugs

“…To investigate selectivity, they tested the sensor's response versus sugars, salts (cations and anions), uric acid, urea and ascorbic acid, and they reported a highly selective response for methamphetamine (Figure 5). Regarding the real samples, they tested the sensor with saliva and household surfaces (sample recovered from glass, stainless steel and plastic surfaces), where they suggested that the satisfactory recovery results of testing real samples can indicate that their sensor has the potential to be applied in forensic investigations [93].…”