Polyaniline Functionalized Impedimetric Paper Sensor for Urine pH Measurement

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).