Wearable Electronic Finger for Date Rape Drugs Screening: From “Do-It-Yourself” Fabrication to Self-Testing

Abstract

In-house digital fabrication of low-cost sensors that can on-site and rapidly detect adulteration of alcoholic beverages with sedation drugs (known as date rape drugs, (DRDs)) and analgesics is of great importance for everyday consumers and supervisory authorities. DRDs and analgesics are administrated in spirits for “drug-facilitated sexual assault” crimes and for the reduction of the following day hangover caused by low-quality spirits, respectively. This work describes, a novel “do-it-yourself” wearable 3D printed electrochemical finger (e-finger), which enables direct, rapid, and multianalyte self-testing of the main DRDs (flunitrazepam, scopolamine, ketamine) and paracetamol via direct immersing into a spirit shot. The oxygen interference on flunitrazepam detection was alleviated by dissolving an effervescent tablet of vitamin C in the spirit shot, as ascorbic acid serves as a scavenger for dissolved oxygen. The e-finger can be printed in-house at any size by anyone with access to a low-cost domestic 3D printer using a simple, fast, and low-cost printing procedure. The e-finger is addressed by a smartphone-based miniature potentiostat and allows on-the-spot self-checking of the quality and safety of alcoholic spirits, via a single calibration-free voltammetric measurement, readily performed even by untrained end users. The e-finger is a new powerful screening tool in the hands of supervisory authorities to conduct on-site forensic investigations. More importantly, it paves the way toward in-house e-production of “ready-to-use” reliable self-testing devices.

Enhanced Luminol Chemiluminescence with Oxidase-like Properties of FeOOH Nanorods for the Sensitive Detection of Uric Acid

“…Figure shows that CL intensity is significantly quenched when 1 μM UA is added, while CL intensities change negligibly when other substances are added. Although AA and Cys are often used to scavenge free radicals, − the concentration of AA and Cys in normal human serum is usually much lower than that of UA. ,, This study demonstrates that our method is possible for UA detection in human serum samples.…”

A review on advances in the development of electrochemical sensors for the detection of anesthetic drugs

“…A wearable electronic nger for the detection of ketamine has been reported by Poulladofonou et al 64 This report presents a simple 3D printed device that can be self-fabricated and tested. A fused deposition modeling method is adopted for the fabrication of the sensor.…”

Detection of Flunitrazepam in Biological Fluids and Beverages:A Review

“…Innovatively, Poulladofonou and colleagues described a homemade self-testing wearable 3D printed electrochemical finger (e-finger) for the first time which can be dipped directly into alcoholic beverages for rapid and accurate detection of multiple analytes, including FLU, scopolamine, ketamine and paracetamol. [132] The e-finger can be fabricated using only an inexpensive at-home 3D printer print program, addressed by a simple smartphonebased micro-voltage regulator. Notably, the most effective commercially available filaments screened for 3D printing of electrode materials were two carbon-loaded polylactic acid (PLA) filaments.…”