Customizable Fabrication Process for Flexible Carbon-Based Electrochemical Biosensors

Abstract

In recent research, 3D printing has become a powerful technique and has been applied in the last few years to carbon-based materials. A new generation of 3D-printed electrodes, more affordable and easier to obtain due to rapid prototyping techniques, has emerged. We propose a customizable fabrication process for flexible (and rigid) carbon-based biosensors, from biosensor design to printable conductive inks. The electrochemical biosensors were obtained on a 50 µm Kapton® (polyimide) substrate and transferred to a 500 µm PDMS substrate, using a 3D-extrusion-based printing method. The main features of our fabrication process consist of short-time customization implementation, fast small-to-medium batch production, ease of electrochemical spectroscopy measurements, and very good resolution for an extrusion-based printing method (100 µm). The sensors were designed for future integration into a smart wound dressing for wound monitoring and other biomedical applications. We increased their sensibility with electro-deposited gold nanoparticles. To assess the biosensors’ functionality, we performed surface functionalization with specific anti-N-protein antibodies for SARS-CoV 2 virus, with promising preliminary results.