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.
