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A paper based chemiresistor has been fabricated to selectively sense ethanol in human breath. The chemiresistor was composed of a sensing mixture of multiwall-carbon-nano-tubes (MWCNTs), poly (diallyl-dimethyl-ammonium chloride) (PDDA), alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), and coenzyme (NADH). The aluminum electrode was deposited on the paper surface, followed by drop-casting of the aforementioned sensing mixture. The resistance of the sensors was measured by exposing the same in gas-vapor mixture as well as the sample solution. The surface-modified MWCNTs specifically broke down ethanol present in the gas-vapor mixture or in a solution to generate a quantitative electronic response proportional to the ethanol concentration. Subsequently, the interference of other volatile organic materials was also tested to prove the selectivity and sensitivity of the sensor towards ethanol in the presence of different volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The variation of the resistance during the interaction between sensor and ethanol was also characterized by measuring the surface potential of the channel material under ethanol exposure using Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). The sensor was integrated with a voltage divider circuit, a display, and a microcontroller unit to make a proof-of-concept prototype for the point-of-care (POC) detection of ethanol in human breath.

Estimation of pH is vital to assess the biochemical and biological processes in a wide variety of applications ranging from water to soil, health, and environment monitoring. This work reports a screen-printed flexible and disposable pH sensor using the impedimetric method. The pH sensor was fabricated by screen printing Graphene-Carbon modified Zinc Oxide based active layer on a paper substrate and shows nearly three orders of change in impedance magnitude in the pH range of 2 – 9. The sensor was carefully designed using COMSOL® Multiphysics software to understand the influence of electrode geometry and the electrical potential developed across the structure. The developed sensor was used for pH monitoring of soil and exhibited high sensitivity of 5.27 kΩ /pH (2-8) with a correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of 0.99. Finally, an IoT-enabled smart pH detection system was implemented for continuous pH monitoring for potential application in digital agriculture. The outcome demonstrates that the presented flexible and disposable pH sensor could open new opportunities for monitoring of water, product process, human health, and chemical (or bio) reactions even using small volumes of samples.

Sorting and measuring blood by cell type is extremely valuable clinically and provides physicians with key information for diagnosing many different disease states including: leukemia, autoimmune disorders, bacterial infections, etc. Despite the value, the present methods are unnecessarily costly and inhibitive particularly in resource poor settings, as they require multiple steps of reagent and/or dye additions and subsequent rinsing followed by manual counting using a hemocytometer, or they require a bulky, expensive equipment such as a flow cytometer. While direct on-paper imaging has been considered challenging, paper substrate offers a strong potential to simplify such reagent/dye addition and rinsing. In this work, three-layer paper-based device is developed to automate such reagent/dye addition and rinsing via capillary action, as well as separating white blood cells (WBCs) from whole blood samples. Direct onpaper imaging is demonstrated using a commercial microscope attachment to a smartphone coupled with a blue LED and 500 nm long pass optical filter. Image analysis is accomplished using an original MATLAB code, to evaluate the total WBC count, as well as differential WBC count, i.e., granulocytes (primarily neutrophils) vs. agranulocytes (primarily lymphocytes). Only a finger-prick of whole blood is required for this assay. The total assay time from finger-prick to data collection is under five minutes. Comparison with a hemocytometry-based manual counting corroborates the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method. This approach could be potentially used to help make blood cell counting technologies more readily available, especially in resource poor, point-of-care settings.

A miniaturized paper-based disposable pH sensor has been developed for the measurement of urine pH. The proposed sensor requires $2~\mu \text{l}$ of analyte solution for rapid detection of the analyte pH with a response time of 3.07 sec and 36.04 sec for acidic and basic pH, respectively. The sensor is fabricated via in situ deposition of polyaniline over the paper substrate by chemical oxidative synthesis. The sensitivity of the sensor is 1.6 $\text{k}\Omega $ /pH for acidic pH and 6.2 $\text{K}\Omega $ /pH for basic pH, at a frequency of 1kHz. The sensor has been characterized using scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy to validate the formation of emeraldine salt and emeraldine base state of polyaniline. The varying optical band gap values of the in-situ deposited paper sensor in the acidic and basic region also validates the presence of polaron in acidic pH and formation of emeraldine base in basic pH. DC conductivity measurement reveals that the conductivity of the polyaniline coated paper substrate decreases at a higher pH value. For an in-depth understanding, a novel electrical equivalent model is proposed, and the electrical parameters extracted from the Bode impedance and phase plot. The fabricated sensor exhibits an average accuracy of 95.53% when tested with urine sample of healthy subjects and patients suffering from urinary tract infection (UTI).

Wearable electrochemical sensors have attracted tremendous attention in recent years. Here, an integrated three-dimensional paper-based microfluidic electrochemical device (3D-PMED) with flexible wireless circuits is demonstrated for real-time monitoring of sweat potassium. The paper-based microfluidic pad is fabricated by printing wax patterns on cellulose paper and then folding the pre-patterned paper four times to form a five-layer stacked structure: sweat collector, vertical channel, transverse channel, electrode layer, and sweat evaporator. Also, we have discussed the different properties with three swear collector types. The sweat monitoring device is realized by integrating a screen-printed potassium ion-selective sensor on the PET substrate with the fabricated paper microfluidic pad. The sweat flow in 3D-PMED is modeled with red ink to generate the flow pathway of sweat and the capability of sweat storage. The detection range of the potassium ion-selective sensor is 1–32 mM, and the electrode response potential is 61.79 mV per decade of K+ concentration. The device has a small size that is suitable for everywhere on the body, and also have shown good selectivity for both anion and cation, and a stable performance within 1 week. This 3D-PMED has provided a simple, low-cost way for real-time dynamic sweat potassium monitoring when exercising.

The excellent characteristics of nanocellulose fiber-based papers have made them one of the most attractive and innovative materials for the development of electrochemical paper-based analytical devices (ePADs). Here, the authors describe a new ePAD based on cellulose nanofibers (CNs) for the determination of glucose concentration from whole blood samples. Cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers were prepared by the electrospinning method. Then, the paper layer regenerated to cellulose by deacetylation in alkaline solution. To obtain a smooth and continuous CNs layer, it was treated with trimethyl chitosan (TMC). The formation of CA layer, its alkaline regeneration and TMC modification was confirmed by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and energy dispersiveX-ray. Screen-printed three electrodes (SPEs) were fabricated by sputtering a thick layer of gold (Au) on the TMC/CNs substrate. Subsequently, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was used to modify the surface of the working electrode. The fabrication steps of rGO-Au-SPE were characterized using cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscop. The results showed that design, construction and modification process was well achieved. Next, glucose oxidase is successfully immobilized onto the regenerated CNs layer which has been previously located in the sensing area of the rGO-Au-SPEs. The ePAD glucose assay exhibited high sensitivity of $9.9\times 10^{-4}~\text{K}\Omega ^{-1} \cdot \text{mM} ^{-1}$ to glucose in the range 3.3 – 27.7 mM ( $\text{R}^{2} =0.99$ ) with a detection limit of 0.1 mM, high reproducibility (RSD = 0.57-1.59%) and outstanding selectivity as well as stability. This biosensing motif represents a general platform for the analysis of other biomarkers.

Pencil (graphite) on paper (PoP) electronics has gained significant attention due to its low cost and versatility in developing customizable disposable electronics. Despite the convenience of the PoP methodology in device fabrication its application in developing electronics is limited due to the absence of a bandgap in graphite. The present work is the first demonstration of the direct writing of 2D MoS2 trace on paper which was utilized as a pressure and strain sensor. Detailed characterization studies revealed the formation of rhombohedral and hexagonal phased MoS2 micro-flowers. XPS studies revealed the formation of mixed 1T (metallic) and 2H (semiconducting) phases of MoS2. With the increase in the number of traces of 2D MoS2 on paper, the resistance of the channel decreased owing to the increase in conducting channels. The as-fabricated pressure sensor displayed a sensitivity of 2.21 kPa−1 and strain sensor displayed a GF of 13. Also, the sensor displayed an excellent durability for 1600 cycles. The superior response of the sensor can be attributed to the synergistic properties of micro fibrous paper substrate and piezo-dependent electron transfer of 2D-MoS2. The presented technique enables “make it yourself” multifunctional device that have numerous potential applications in the field of consumer electronics and personal healthcare monitoring.

Creatinine is a biochemical waste that is disseminated continually inside human blood. A synthetic polymer is developed in this study using Molecularly Imprinted Polymerization (MIP) technology with the precipitation polymerization method. The MIP polymer is used for finding the levels of creatinine from human serum samples with different creatinine concentrations. The MIP polymer is very selective to the specific adsorption of the molecules of creatinine. The produced MIP polymer is suitable for evaluating creatinine concentrations until 50 parts per million (ppm) that is thrice greater than the standard. The fabrication of chip-sized Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS)-based interdigital (ID) sensors is described. The operation of the MEMS sensor is verified using the technique of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The presented details of the development of MEMS ID sensor and creatinine specific MIP polymer are for detecting raised biotoxic waste levels, i.e. creatinine management is part of our research. The raised levels need monitoring by frequent pathological visits to those patients who have impaired kidney functioning. The complete system will be helpful for creatinine management at any time from home at a low cost. While early detection of an increase in creatinine and monitoring of kidney health to prevent further health-related complications are the goal of this research, results of up to 50 ppm are accessed. Until 50 ppm of MIP functionality is checked for confirming the MIP polymer adsorption of creatinine and the results are shown, which helps establish the sensing technology even if used for a patient with a high creatinine level.

This paper describes a simple and low-cost test strip for on-site monitoring of methiocarb insecticide. Hydrophilic filter paper soaked in agarose solution was bounded by hydrophobic solid wax and then was coated with unmodified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). AuNPs aggregation caused by methiocarb served as colorimetric response. We demonstrated detection capability of methiocarb both in solution- and substrate-based sensor. A good linear relationship was obtained between the colorimetric response and the concentration of methiocarb ranging from 20 to 80 ng mL $^{-1}$ with a limit of detection of 5 ng mL $^{-1}$ . Excellent selectivity toward methiocarb was observed among various pesticides and cationic and anionic ions. Furthermore, the proposed assay could successfully detect methiocarb in paddy and tap water with satisfactory results. It would be of interest for use as rapid, portable, and technically simple test strip in water quality monitoring.

Cardiac biomarker detection helps in early diagnosis of cardiac syndromes. However, a rapid, cost-effective, reliable, and easy-to-use sensor is still unavailable. Herein, we report a disposable, label free, impedance-based biosensor for the detection of two common cardiac biomarkers, Myoglobin (Myo), and Myeloperoxidase (MPO). The sensor is fabricated on Whatman filter paper coated with a conducting polymer, polyaniline (PAni). The PAni-coated paper is functionalized with glutaraldehyde, a homo-bi functional crosslinker, prior to the covalent attachment of antibodies specific to each biomarker protein. Non-specific active regions of the sensor are blocked by treatment with bovine serum albumin. Conductive silver paste is used to define electrodes for AC impedance measurement on the PAni coated filter paper. Binding of the target protein (Myo or MPO) to the specific antibody changes the impedance between the electrodes; this is detected using AC impedance spectroscopy. The impedance is measured using a frequency response analyzer with an AC excitation voltage of 100 mV in the frequency range of 100 Hz–100 kHz. We can successfully detect Myo and MPO in buffer solution within the concentration range of 100 ng/mL– $50~\mu \text{g}$ /mL. Detection limit obtained for these cardiac biomarkers spiked in human serum is $1~\mu \text{g}$ /mL. Further blocking using human serum improves the lower detection limit to 500 ng/mL. The developed biosensor uses inexpensive materials and fabrication techniques, detects cardiac biomarkers in clinically relevant concentrations rapidly (i.e., within 20 mins), and can be disposed in an environment friendly manner, thus making the sensor suitable for diagnostic applications.