A low-cost inkjet-printed paper-based potentiostat

Abstract

The work presented details the manufacturing of a low-cost hybrid inkjet-printed paper-based potentiostat, with the aim of creating a low-cost sensing system for rapid water quality monitoring. Potentiostats exhibit high sensitivities and can be used for a variety of applications. The results highlight the functionality of a paper-based potentiostat compared to a potentiostat manufactured on a printed circuit board (PCB), an LMP91000EVM development board and a laboratory-based Metrohm Autolab potentiostat. Cyclic voltammetry was performed using an 80 L sample of 5 mM ferri-ferrocyanide dropped onto a commercial screen-printed electrode from DropSens. The miniaturized paper-based potentiostat is small enough to be stored in a wallet and therefore easy to transport. Furthermore, a cost analysis shows that the potentiostat is 10 times lower in cost than the commercially available handheld potentiostat, taking the costs of man hours into account. This technology enables electrochemistry experiments to be performed on-site using the portable, disposable and low-cost solution and can be applied to a variety of fields including healthcare, wearables and environmental monitoring.