Chemosensors (Mar 2023)

Customizable Fabrication Process for Flexible Carbon-Based Electrochemical Biosensors

  • Catalin Marculescu,
  • Petruta Preda,
  • Tiberiu Burinaru,
  • Eugen Chiriac,
  • Bianca Tincu,
  • Alina Matei,
  • Oana Brincoveanu,
  • Cristina Pachiu,
  • Marioara Avram

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors11040204
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 4
p. 204

Abstract

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In recent research, 3D printing has become a powerful technique and has been applied in the last few years to carbon-based materials. A new generation of 3D-printed electrodes, more affordable and easier to obtain due to rapid prototyping techniques, has emerged. We propose a customizable fabrication process for flexible (and rigid) carbon-based biosensors, from biosensor design to printable conductive inks. The electrochemical biosensors were obtained on a 50 µm Kapton® (polyimide) substrate and transferred to a 500 µm PDMS substrate, using a 3D-extrusion-based printing method. The main features of our fabrication process consist of short-time customization implementation, fast small-to-medium batch production, ease of electrochemical spectroscopy measurements, and very good resolution for an extrusion-based printing method (100 µm). The sensors were designed for future integration into a smart wound dressing for wound monitoring and other biomedical applications. We increased their sensibility with electro-deposited gold nanoparticles. To assess the biosensors’ functionality, we performed surface functionalization with specific anti-N-protein antibodies for SARS-CoV 2 virus, with promising preliminary results.

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