Evaluation on the Intrinsic Physicoelectrochemical Attributes and Engineering of Micro-, Nano-, and 2D-Structured Allotropic Carbon-Based Papers for Flexible Electronics

Flexible electronics have gained more attention for emerging electronic devices such as sensors, biosensors, and batteries with advantageous properties including being thin, lightweight, flexible, and low-cost. The development of various forms of allotropic carbon papers provided a new dry-manufacturing route for the fabrication of flexible and wearable electronics, while the electrochemical performance and the bending stability are largely influenced by the bulk morphology and the micro-/nanostructured domains of the carbon papers. Here, we evaluate systematically the intrinsic physicoelectrochemical properties of allotropic carbon-based conducting papers as flexible electrodes including carbon-nanotubes-paper (CNTs-paper), graphene-paper (GR-paper), and carbon-fiber-paper (CF-paper), followed by functionalization of the allotropic carbon papers for the fabrication of flexible electrodes. The morphology, chemical structure, and defects originating from the allotropic nanostructured carbon materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy, followed by evaluating the electrochemical performance of the corresponding flexible electrodes by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The electron-transfer rate constants of the CNTs-paper and GR-paper electrodes were similar to 14 times higher compared with the CF-paper electrode. The CNTs-paper and GR-paper electrodes composed of nanostructured carbon showed significantly higher bending stabilities of 5.61 and 4.96 times compared with the CF-paper. The carbon-paper flexible electrodes were further functionalized with an inorganic catalyst, Prussian blue (PB), forming the PB-carbon-paper catalytic electrode and an organic conducting polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), forming the PEDOT-carbon-paper capacitive electrode. The intrinsic attribute of different allotropic carbon electrodes affects the deposition of PB and PEDOT, leading to different electrocatalytic and capacitive performances. These findings are insightful for the future development and fabrication of advanced flexible electronics with allotropic carbon papers.Funding Agencies|Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [VR-2015-04434]; Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. program (RGJ) from the Thailand Research Fund [PHD/0212/2560]</p

Craft-and-Stick Xurographic Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidic Electrochemical Sensing Platform

An innovative modular approach for facile design and construction of flexible microfluidic biosensor platforms based on a dry manufacturing “craft-and-stick” approach is developed. The design and fabrication of the flexible graphene paper electrode (GPE) unit and polyethylene tetraphthalate sheet (PET)6/adhesive fluidic unit are completed by an economic and generic xurographic craft approach. The GPE widths and the microfluidic channels can be constructed down to 300 μm and 200 μm, respectively. Both units were assembled by simple double-sided adhesive tapes into a microfluidic integrated GPE (MF-iGPE) that are flexible, thin (−1 glucose. The MF-iGPE showed good reproducibility for glucose detection (RSD n = 6) and required only 10 μL of the analyte. This modular craft-and-stick manufacturing approach could potentially further develop along the concept of paper-crafted model assembly kits suitable for low-resource laboratories or classroom settings

A Fabrication of Multichannel Graphite Electrode Using Low-Cost Stencil-Printing Technique

Multichannel graphite electrodes (MGrEs) have been designed and fabricated in this study. A template was cut from an adhesive plastic sheet using a desktop cutting device. The template was placed on a polypropylene substrate, and carbon graphite ink was applied with a squeegee to the template. The size of the auxiliary electrode (AE) as well as the location of the reference electrode (RE) of MGrEs design were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy was used to determine the thickness of the ink on the four working electrodes (WEs), which was 21.9 ± 1.8 µm. Cyclic voltammetry with a redox probe solution was used to assess the precision of the four WEs. The intra-electrode repeatability and inter-electrode reproducibility of the MGrEs production were satisfied by low RSD (<6%). Therefore, the MGrEs is reliable and capable of detecting four replicates of the target analyte in a single analysis. The electrochemical performance of four WEs was investigated and compared to one WE. The sensitivity of the MGrEs was comparable to the sensitivity of a single WE. The MGrEs’ potential applications were investigated by analyzing the nitrite in milk and tap water samples (recoveries values of 97.6 ± 0.4 to 110 ± 2%)

A Fabrication of Multichannel Graphite Electrode Using Low-Cost Stencil-Printing Technique

Multichannel graphite electrodes (MGrEs) have been designed and fabricated in this study. A template was cut from an adhesive plastic sheet using a desktop cutting device. The template was placed on a polypropylene substrate, and carbon graphite ink was applied with a squeegee to the template. The size of the auxiliary electrode (AE) as well as the location of the reference electrode (RE) of MGrEs design were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy was used to determine the thickness of the ink on the four working electrodes (WEs), which was 21.9 &plusmn; 1.8 &micro;m. Cyclic voltammetry with a redox probe solution was used to assess the precision of the four WEs. The intra-electrode repeatability and inter-electrode reproducibility of the MGrEs production were satisfied by low RSD (&lt;6%). Therefore, the MGrEs is reliable and capable of detecting four replicates of the target analyte in a single analysis. The electrochemical performance of four WEs was investigated and compared to one WE. The sensitivity of the MGrEs was comparable to the sensitivity of a single WE. The MGrEs&rsquo; potential applications were investigated by analyzing the nitrite in milk and tap water samples (recoveries values of 97.6 &plusmn; 0.4 to 110 &plusmn; 2%)