Emerging Applications of Additive Manufacturing in Biosensors and Bioanalytical Devices

Abstract

The progress of additive manufacturing (AM), known as 3D‐printing, has initiated a revolution in the new generation of biosensors and bioanalytical devices in recent years. The advancement in the resolution of AM has enabled the microfabrication of the architectures of electrodes and sensing layers for high‐performance sensing. Diversiform printable materials, including biocompatible materials, polymers, various gels and metals, have enormously broadened the horizon in sensors and analytical devices for both research and commercial purposes. The considerable shortening of time and cost in sensor prototyping and fabrication has been reported and various highly customizable biosensing platforms and devices are under development. Herein, the most recent studies on the applications of AM in biosensors and bioanalytical devices are summarized with the aim to provide a panorama of emerging 3D‐printing strategies for sensor design and bioanalytical device fabrication.

Vat Photopolymerization 3D Printing of Advanced Soft Sensors and Actuators: From Architecture to Function

“…Traditionally, microfluidic devices can be mass‐produced by soft lithography, [ 114 ] microhot embossing, [ 115 ] and microinjection, [ 116 ] however, either a lack of diversity and versatility in testing or a lack of convenience and economy in prototyping, hinders the wider application of microfluidic devices. [ 117 ] 3D printing allows the manufacturing of complex prototypes directly from computer‐aided designs with few geometric constraints, resulting in increasing importance in microfluidic device manufacturing. [ 118 ] It also promotes the development of point‐of‐care testing, which means the medical diagnostic tests are available at the time and place of users rather than being inspected and analyzed in laboratories.…”

“…[ 118–119 ] Also, the recent 3D‐printed smartphone‐based peripheral components for biosensing have proved the ability of 3D‐printed devices in portability, multiplexing, and intelligent readout, which can meet the growing demand for home diagnostics, field analysis, real‐time health or environmental monitoring. [ 117,120 ]…”

“…Biochemical sensors refer to integrated devices that convert certain biological or chemical particles into a readable signal, such as optical and thermal changes, electrochemical reaction phenomenon, and mass‐induced vibrations. [ 117 ] According to different signal conversion principles, such biosensors can be divided into optical‐based sensors, amperometric sensors, magnetic‐based sensors, and resonance frequency variation‐based sensors, etc. Because optical‐based sensing is intuitive and easy to read, it is widely used in microfluidic devices as qualitative sensing, [ 118 ] while accurate quantitative perception is commonly achieved through the integration of electrochemistry or other kinds of systems.…”

Combining Electrochemiluminescence Detection with Aptamer‐Gated Indicator Releasing Mesoporous Nanoparticles Enables ppt Sensitivity for Strip‐Based Rapid Tests

“…While the use of smartphones as detectors has started ad ecade ago, [9] only the advent of affordable 3D printing technologies and OTG( on-the-go) electronics have boosted the field, [10] making the fabrication of cases to fit on aphone simple and affordable and the adaption to new phone models with different size or camera position straightforward. [11] OTGelectronics allow for facile and autonomous integration of microelectrodes and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for electrochemical and fluorescence measurements into such holders, [12] leaving much more room for assay development than the photographing of coloured areas.…”

Engineered Living Materials-Based Sensing and Actuation

“…To realize this long-term objective, in recent years, the concept of engineered living materials (ELMs) has drawn significant attention (Nguyen et al, 2018;Guo et al, 2020). ELMs are an emerging class of materials that combine living biological entities with functional soft materials (Chen et al, 2015;Heyde et al, 2017;Ruan et al, 2020). The incorporation of biological cells or tissues provides the materials with biosensing, self-regenerative, and molecular computing capabilities (Huang et al, 2019;Pu et al, 2020).…”