A Simple Method to Tune Up Screen‐Printed Carbon Electrodes Applicable to the Design of Disposable Electrochemical Sensors

Abstract

We report an easy method to tune up screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) for application in fabricating disposable electrochemical sensors. Simply by ultrasonic polishing a bare SPCE in a g-Al 2 O 3 slurry, the surface roughness was drastically smoothed coupled with a large increase in hydrophilicity. The as-generated micromorphology on the surface of the SPCE was found to be ideal for the immobilization of catechol to minimize the overpotential in the sensitive detection of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and hydrazine. Physical characterization by both XPS and AFM studies specify that the adsorption behavior is related to the carbon surface functionalities and the trapping of g-Al 2 O 3 on the polished-SPCE.

Electrochemical performance of activated screen printed carbon electrodes for hydrogen peroxide and phenol derivatives sensing

“…Pre-treatment of carbon-based electrodes can have an outstanding effect on the amelioration of electron transfer rates on a large number of compounds in solution [14,15]. The activation cited in the bibliography typically involves holding the electrode at a constant potential for a short period of time [12,13,16], potential cycling to extreme potentials [17,18], heat treatment [19], ultrasonic polishing [20], oxygen plasma treatment [21] or mechanical activation [22,23]. Improved electroanalytical outputs after electrode activation may be attributed to an increment in the surface's hydrophilicity [14,24], the increased quantity of carbon-oxygen functional groups on surfaces [25,26], augmented surface roughness [27] and/or the removal of the organic ink constituents or contaminants introduced into the printing stage [14].…”

Towards a blocking-free electrochemical immunosensing strategy for anti-transglutaminase antibodies using screen-printed electrodes

“…Screen-printed electrodes are hydrophobic due to the ink components used in the manufacture (typically polyvinyl chloride and organic resins), normally forming a hydrogen-terminated electrode surface. In order to create a hydrophilic surface, other authors employ time-consuming electrochemical pretreatments to generate oxygenated groups [35] or even ultrasonic polishing with alumina [38]. In the latter case, the improvement on the immobilization of catechol derivatives was described after the activation.…”

Biomolecule-free, selective detection of clenbuterol based on disposable screen-printed carbon electrode

“…We report here a simplified method based on a disposable screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) for selective clenbuterol detection without adding biorecognition element. As reported by several groups, either the content of oxygen functional groups or the edge plane site can be tuned to improve the performance of chemical sensors under a suitable preanodization condition [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. We expect that both the oxygen functional groups and edge plane site can effectively help the adsorption and dimer formation of clenbuterol for electroanalysis.…”