A team of nanoengineer from the University of California, San Diego developed a tool that will help to make sensors.The team of researcher has prepared high tech bio-inks which react with chemical such as glucose.Researchers filled the pens with this inks and draw sensors on the skin and on the leaves to measure glucose and pollution respectively.The pen could be used on phones for health monitoring and on building walls to monitor toxic pollutants.It also has potiential to detect explosives and nerve agents on the battlefield.
A member of research team Wang said, "Our new biocatalytic pen technology, based on novel enzymatic inks, holds considerable promise for a broad range of applications on site and in the field."
During development the researchers faced a big challenge which was making inks from chemicals that are not toxic to plants and humans and able to act as the sensors electrodes and ability to keep their properties over long times in storage and in different conditions.They used polyethylene glycol which is biocompatible, used in some drug delivery applications as a binder.For the conductive of inks they used graphite powder.Then they added chitosan, an antibacterial agent used in bandages to reduce bleeding, to make the ink adhered.The inks also contains xylitol, a sugar substitute for the stabilization of enzymes that react with chemicals the do-it-yourself sensors are designed to monitor.
One ink loaded pen can draw 500 glucose sensor strips directly on the skin and could control eletrodes with electronic device via Bluetooth, device known as potentiostat, to collect data.For detection of pollutants, draw a sensor on a leaf then enzymes react with an industrial chemical phenol.Then put the leaf in a solution of phenol and water and the sensor was connected to a detector.
Nanoengineers explain that their next steps include connecting the sensors to devices wirelessly and checking sensors performance in difficult situations such as extreme temperatures and altering humidity.
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