Laserjet Printed Micro/Nano Sensors and Microfluidic Systems: A Simple and Facile Digital Platform for Inexpensive, Flexible, and Low‐Volume Devices

Abstract

A facile and digital do‐it‐yourself technique is proposed to fabricate inexpensive sensors on flexible substrates (paper, cloth, and plastic film). A set of office‐grade equipment (i.e., laserjet printer, thermal laminator, computer‐aided paper cutter), and commercially available supplies (i.e., baking wax paper, furniture restoration metal‐leaf) are used. Forming electrodes through traditional printing and defining a fluidic confinement region through crafting practice enable fabrication of a wide range of devices without requiring customized specialty instruments, costly infrastructure, and complicated fabrication steps, unlike previously introduced methods. Three different levels of experiments are designed to assess the comprehensiveness and responsiveness of the proposed method to the needs of existing research fields. The performances of the fabricated features at each level are evaluated to cover various application domains in environmental monitoring and biomedical diagnostics utilizing conductometric, colorimetric, biochemical, and chemoresistive detection principles. Devices with varying size of features, from nanometers to centimeters, are fabricated and characterized. This method provides an alternative route to decentralized production of low‐cost flexible sensors and other devices, with a minimal step, time, and facilities. The operation of such devices is simple and can be further empowered by smartphones for data analysis and transmission.

Low-cost microfluidics: Towards affordable environmental monitoring and assessment

“…Using this technique, hydrophobic inks are used to create the channel walls on paper-based devices (Fan et al, 2018;Lim et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019). Note that inkjet printing is applicable for multiple types of paper, while laser printers provides rapid and large volume printing processes (Bamshad and Cho, 2021;Nishat et al, 2021).…”

Recent Advances, Opportunities, and Challenges in Developing Nucleic Acid Integrated Wearable Biosensors for Expanding the Capabilities of Wearable Technologies in Health Monitoring

“…On the other hand, metal nanomaterials and thin films such as gold thin layers have cost limitations, albeit their high compatibility and biomolecule functionalization through thiol bonding for NA conjugation and biosensing. The future entails fabricating the sensing layers as part of the flexible polymer layer and the microfluidics layer—a method frequently adopted in the discrete flexible point-of-care technology [ 52 ] or wearable strain, force, and pressure sensors [ 53 , 54 ].…”

Recent Trends of Microfluidics in Food Science and Technology: Fabrications and Applications

“…PDMS microfluidic equipment has permeability to gas, and can therefore be used for long-term cell culture. According to their physicochemical properties, the organic materials used in microfluidic systems can be divided into the following categories: elastic [ 99 ], thermoplastic [ 100 ], plastic [ 101 ], hydrogel [ 102 ], and paper-based platforms [ 103 ]. While organic materials have many advantages, there are still some challenges in their applications, such as aging, chemical resistance, and their mechanical, optical, and thermal properties [ 101 ].…”