Development and Characterization of a Novel Low-Cost Water-Level and Water Quality Monitoring Sensor by Using Enhanced Screen Printing Technology with PEDOT:PSS

Abstract

A novel capacitive sensor for measuring the water-level and monitoring the water quality has been developed in this work by using an enhanced screen printing technology. A commonly used environment-friendly conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) for conductive sensors has a limited conductivity due to its high sheet resistance. A physical treatment performed during the printing process has reduced the sheet resistance of printed PEDOT:PSS on polyethylenterephthalat (PET) substrate from 264.39 Ω/sq to 23.44 Ω/sq. The adhesion bonding force between printed PEDOT:PSS and the substrate PET is increased by using chemical treatment and tested using a newly designed adhesive peeling force test. Using the economical conductive ink PEDOT:PSS with this new physical treatment, our capacitive sensors are cost-efficient and have a sensitivity of up to 1.25 pF/mm.

Real-Time Impedance Monitoring of Epithelial Cultures with Inkjet-Printed Interdigitated-Electrode Sensors

“…Our lab, for instance, has fabricated dermo-epidermal engineered skin using 3D bioprinting and tested them in vivo as dermis/epidermis substitutes in rat models [ 1 ]. We have also exploited screen printing to manufacture biocompatible humidity sensors [ 2 ] and developed organic-based actuators with printing-compatible materials to study the mechanical activation of biological processes [ 3 ]. Not surprisingly, our research has been gradually fueling the vision of a hybrid platform capable of fabricating these sensors, actuators and living skin tissues simultaneously.…”

Coagulation Bath‐Assisted 3D Printing of PEDOT:PSS with High Resolution and Strong Substrate Adhesion for Bioelectronic Devices

“…Substrate Adhesion Test: Substrate adhesion testing was performed in a modified previous method by soaking the sample in 15 mL of deionized water in a petri dish (P139797C, Titan) overnight. [47] Each sample was then held by tweezers and vigorously swirled by hand in the petri dish for one minute.…”

“…[46] Fortuitously, the hydrophilic sulfonate group of PSS can hydrogen-bond with the oxygen in PET, adhering the two materials. [47] However, if treated with water, the bonding between PSS and PET is largely reduced and results in prints releasing from the substrate. Therefore, to strengthen this bond between the PEDOT:PSS and the substrate, there are two problems which must be solved: 1) increasing the amount of hydrogen bonding between the prints and substrate, and 2) removing excess DBSA from the prints without causing them to release from the substrate.…”

Significance of Flexible Substrates for Wearable and Implantable Devices: Recent Advances and Perspectives

“…Screen printing, [ 7,12,79b,82a,83,111,112,130 ] inkjet printing, [ 8c,89,95,101,103,104,106,109,110,113,115–117,119–121,123–125 ] and transfer printing are several conventional printing methods developed and improved for printing numerous materials, including conductive polymers, onto various nanomaterials; including 0D, 1D, and 2D materials such as Cu, Zn, Sb, Pb, Ni, Sn, Ti, Ag, In, Bi, Pt, and Au for the fabrication of electrically conductive pathways on various substrates. [ 6 ] For example, screen printing is a simple, versatile, and inexpensive mass printing technology extensively used to printing various nanomaterial inks, including Ag NPs [ 71 ] and NWs, [ 72 ] Cu NPs, [ 73 ] 2D graphene, [ 74 ] and conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS [ 75 ] on polymer plastic substrates such as PET, [ 74,76 ] PI, [ 77 ] PEN, [ 78 ] PC, [ 79 ] and polymer elastomer substrates such as PDMS, [ 80 ] TPU. [ 81 ] Similarly, in the inkjet printing process, plastic substrates that exhibit different properties such as high mechanical strengths, in addition to condensing and hydrophobic surfaces, were adopted due to their excellent printing behaviors.…”