Inkjet Printing-Manufactured Boron-Doped Diamond Chip Electrodes for Electrochemical Sensing Purposes

Inkjet Printing-Manufactured Boron-Doped Diamond Chip Electrodes for Electrochemical Sensing Purposes

Liu, Z. (TU Delft Micro and Nano Engineering)
Baluchová, S. (TU Delft Micro and Nano Engineering)
Brocken, Bob (Student TU Delft)
Ahmed, Essraa (University of Hasselt; IMEC)
Pobedinskas, Paulius (University of Hasselt; IMEC)
Haenen, Ken (University of Hasselt; IMEC)
Buijnsters, J.G. (TU Delft Micro and Nano Engineering)

2023

Fabrication of patterned boron-doped diamond (BDD) in an inexpensive and straightforward way is required for a variety of practical applications, including the development of BDD-based electrochemical sensors. This work describes a simplified and novel bottom-up fabrication approach for BDD-based three-electrode sensor chips utilizing direct inkjet printing of diamond nanoparticles on silicon-based substrates. The whole seeding process, accomplished by a commercial research inkjet printer with piezo-driven drop-on-demand printheads, was systematically examined. Optimized and continuous inkjet-printed features were obtained with glycerol-based diamond ink (0.4% vol/wt), silicon substrates pretreated by exposure to oxygen plasma and subsequently to air, and applying a dot density of 750 drops (volume 9 pL) per inch. Next, the dried micropatterned substrate was subjected to a chemical vapor deposition step to grow uniform thin-film BDD, which satisfied the function of both working and counter electrodes. Silver was inkjet-printed to complete the sensor chip with a reference electrode. Scanning electron micrographs showed a closed BDD layer with a typical polycrystalline structure and sharp and well-defined edges. Very good homogeneity in diamond layer composition and a high boron content (∼2 × 10²¹ atoms cm^-3) was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. Important electrochemical characteristics, including the width of the potential window (2.5 V) and double-layer capacitance (27 μF cm^-2), were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry. Fast electron transfer kinetics was recognized for the [Ru(NH₃)₆]^3+/2+ redox marker due to the high doping level, while somewhat hindered kinetics was observed for the surface-sensitive [Fe(CN)₆]^3-/4- probe. Furthermore, the ability to electrochemically detect organic compounds of different structural motifs, such as glucose, ascorbic acid, uric acid, tyrosine, and dopamine, was successfully verified and compared with commercially available screen-printed BDD electrodes. The newly developed chip-based manufacture method enables the rapid prototyping of different small-scale electrode designs and BDD microstructures, which can lead to enhanced sensor performance with capability of repeated use.

boron-doped diamond
cyclic voltammetry
electrochemical sensor chip
inkjet printing
miniaturized electrodes
selective-area seeding

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9d7175b7-bcdc-4b57-9733-b85423681a82

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c04824

1944-8244

ACS applied materials & interfaces, 15 (33), 39915-39925

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 Z. Liu, S. Baluchová, Bob Brocken, Essraa Ahmed, Paulius Pobedinskas, Ken Haenen, J.G. Buijnsters