Patent Application: US-22622307-A

Abstract:
a sensor comprises a substrate having nanoparticles of a conducting polymer such as polyanaline printed thereon . also described is a printing composition for printing onto a substrate , the composition comprising nanoparticles of a conducting polymer such as polyanaline .

Description:
improvements in synthesis and fabrication of conducting polymers with nanodimensional control have managed to overcome the issue of processibility . little or no aniline monomer should be present in these nanoparticle dispersions . a stable nanodispersion has an indistinguishable appearance from a true solution , and more importantly can be handled and applied similarly ( li et al ., 2005 ). in addition , enhanced properties of conducting polymer materials become apparent at the nanodimension such as higher conductivity and more rapid , discrete , electrochemical switching processes , properties directly applicable in electrode devices . nanoparticles of conducting polymers offer a route to overcome issues of solubility post - deposition . once printed on a suitable substrate , nanoparticles adhere to the surface , and are rendered insoluble in mild media . in contrast , incorporation of water - soluble protein into the conducting polymer films ( by printing , or otherwise ), will , in the case of doped polyaniline , attach to the polymer and not be vunerable to detachment or dissolution in buffer . not only do nanoparticles overcome vital processibilty issues , they possess numerous other advantages over their soluble counterparts , as described above , including higher conductivity and more rapid , electrochemical switching processes . using the conducting polymer nanoparticles with inkjet printing enables a practical route to a desktop fabrication system for sensing devices . this is demonstrated below using a nanoparticulate form of polyaniline . ultra - thin films of polyaniline nanoparticles were patterned onto screen - printed electrodes using a conventional desktop epson piezoelectric printer in conjunction with computer controlled software , powerpoint ™. the films were characterised using electrochemistry and physical techniques and an effective application in biosensing is demonstrated . inkjet printing may be performed with different ink ejection technologies , of which the most commonly used are the piezoelectric and thermal . both thermal and piezo actuators accomplish the dispensing of pico - litre ( pl )- sized droplets from the capillary nozzles of an inkjet printing head . in the thermal cartridge , the printhead is assembled in the ink cartridge . the printing head consists of a nozzle plate with several ink ejection orifices connected to resistive heater elements and placed in contact with an ink reservoir . when each individual heater element is actuated , rapid transfer of heat to a small portion of the ink located in the nozzles causes evaporation , creating a solvent bubble that leads to droplet formation . in piezoelectric actuators , the ink cartridge is detachable from the printhead . crystalline materials in the printhead undergo mechanical stress upon application of an electric field . a very small contraction or expansion of these crystals , confined into the nozzles , allows for a reduction of space available for the ink , thus increasing pressure and causing ejection of the drop . droplet sizes in both piezo and thermal technologies vary according to the temperature gradient applied , frequency , and ink viscosity . aniline was purchased from aldrich ( 13 , 293 - 4 ), vacuum distilled and stored frozen under nitrogen . ammonium persulphate ( aps ), distilled aniline , dodecylbenzene sulphonic acid ( dbsa ) and sodium dodecylsulphonate ( sds ). a modification of the rapid mixing method described by huang , & amp ; kaner ( 2006 ). was employed . 1 . 632 g of dbsa was dissolved in 16 . 75 ml water ( 0 . 25 m dbsa ). 0 . 0032 mol of aniline ( 0 . 2982 g ) and 0 . 0008 mol of aps ( 0 . 1826 g ) were separately dissolved in 10 ml 0 . 25 m dbsa . both solutions were mixed together in a vial . it was kept stirring for 2 . 5 hr . after polymerisation , 20 ml of 0 . 05 m sds was added into the polymer dispersion . the solution was centrifuged at 4400 rpm for 30 minutes . the supernatant was decanted and put in a dialysis bag . it was dialysed against 0 . 05 m sds ( 400 ml × 2 ) for 42 hours with the sds solution being changed every 18 hours . note : dialysis is the separation of small solute particles from colloid particles by means of a semi - permeable membrane . using a dialysis membrane with a cutoff point of 12 , 000 molecular weight ( as in this instance ), all species with molecular weights lower than this can be removed over time . therefore , after dialysis for 42 hours , unreacted aniline monomer ( 93 . 13 molecular weight ) would be completely removed as the polymerisation begins , the initiator molecules ( ammonium persulphate ( aps )) induce the formation of nanoparticles by rapidly polymerising aniline monomers in the vicinity . if the initiator molecules are evenly distributed ( by a rapid mixing in this instance ), they should be consumed very quickly . therefore secondary growth of polyaniline is very limited due to lack of available reagents . carrying out the technique of . huang & amp ; kaner ( 2006 ) results in nanofibrillar formation however , by carrying out the procedure in the presence of the micelle and dopant , dodecylbenzenesulphonic acid ( dbsa ), it is possible to stabilise the particles , as the reaction occurs in the hydrophobic core of the micelles , resulting in spherical nanoparticles with a diameter distribution between 10 and 50 nm or 20 and 80 nm . figure a is a schematic representation of a polyaniline nanoparticle synthesised in the dbsa micellar system as described in example 1 . polyaniline nanoparticles were synthesised as described in example 1 . horseradish peroxidase ( hrp , 232 - 668 - 6 ) was purchased from biozyme laboratories ( south wales , uk ). 30 % ( v / v ) hydrogen peroxide solution was purchased from merck . polyvinylsulphonate ( pvs , 27 , 842 - 4 ) was purchased from aldrich . the silver / silver chloride ( ag / agcl ) reference electrode was purchased from bioanalytical systems ltd . ( cheshire , uk ). the platinum mesh auxiliary electrode ( 29 , 809 - 3 ) was purchased from aldrich . gwent ( c10903d14 ) carbon paste ink was purchased from gwent electronic materials ltd . ( gwent , uk ). electrodag ® pf - 410s silver ink and electrodag ® 452 ss blue insulation ink were purchased from acheson poly ( ethylene ) terephthalate ( pet ) substrates were purchased from hifi industrial film ltd ( dublin , ireland ). indium tin oxide sputtered pet was purchased from cpfilms . unless otherwise stated , all electrochemical measurements were carried out in phosphate buffered saline ( pbs ), ( 0 . 1 mol dm − 3 phosphate , 0 . 137 mol dm − 3 nacl and 2 . 7 mmol dm − 3 kcl ), ph 6 . 8 . the ink - jet printing system was an epson stylus c45 printer . the chip resetter was purchased from www . 9to6 . ie . all electrochemical protocols were performed on a ch1000 potentiostat with ch1000 software , using either cyclic voltammetry or time - based amperometric modes . a dek 248 screen - printer was used for fabrication of the carbon - paste and inter - digitated array electrodes . screen - printed electrodes were fabricated in - house using a dek 248 according to grennan et al . ( 2001 ). briefly , electrodes were screen - printed onto pre - shrunk polyethylene terephthalate ( pet ) substrate . for the carbon paste electrodes : initially a layer of silver was deposited as the conducting path . a layer of gwent carbon paste ink ( c10903d14 ) was deposited as the working electrode . finally , an insulation layer was deposited to eliminate cross - talk and to define the working electrode area ( 9 mm 2 ). screen - printed electrodes were fabricated in - house using a dek 248 according to grennan et al . ( 2001 ). for the interdigitated array ( ida ) electrodes : a layer of silver was screen - printed as the electrode layer onto pre - shrunk pet substrate . the resulting electrodes measured 30 mm from top to base and 24 mm across the base . a variety of pitch sizes were utilised , though the most commonly employed were idas with a digit width of 200 μm and a spacing of 1000 or 1500 μm . these dimensions were printed along the base of the electrode ( i . e . 200 × 1500 for an ida with 200 μm digits and 1500 μm spacing ). the 200 × 1000 and 200 × 1500 idas had a total digit number of 17 and 12 respectively in an active area measuring approximately 20 × 20 mm . epson print cartridges ( t036 and t037 ), compatible with the epson c45 were cut open and emptied of ink and the sponge inside was removed . all colour tanks of the cartridges ( black , cyan , magenta and yellow ) were cleaned thoroughly with deionized water . the chip on the cartridge was then reset using the chip resetter so that the printer would read the cartridge as full . polyaniline nanoparticle dispersions ( example 1 ) were then poured into a tank in the cartridge , e . g ., yellow . all other tanks were filled with deionized water . powerpoint ® was used to draw coloured circles ( 3 mm diam .). the design was printed in colour , e . g ., yellow , on plain printing paper ( 210 mm × 210 mm ). screen - printed electrodes were then affixed to the printed page where the powerpoint ® circles were aligned with the electrode area . the colour cartridge was then removed from the printer and replaced with the polyaniline - filled cartridge . polyaniline was then printed as many times as required , on the screen - printed electrodes using ‘ best photo ’ mode as the printer setting . electrodes modified with polyaniline nanoparticles ( synthesised according to example 1 ) were incorporated into a flow - cell set - up as described by killard et al ., 2001 . a potential of − 400 mv vs . ag / agcl was applied . following the reaching of a steady state , ammonium chloride at varying concentrations was passed over the sensor at a flow rate of 400 μl min − 1 for 20 s and the amperometric outputs monitored . interdigitated electrodes with polyaniline nanoparticles ( synthesised according to example 1 ) were incorporated into a gas jar for headspace analysis . an impulse xp ( honeywell analytics ) ammonia sensor was employed as the reference method . ammonia solution was introduced into the chamber dropwise . the polyaniline interdigitated electrode was connected in a 2 electrode configuration and cyclic voltammetry was applied (+ 0 . 1 v to − 0 . 1 v at 0 . 2 v s − 1 , cycled for duration of analysis ). the current was sampled at + 0 . 1 v and − 0 . 1 v and plotted against time , yielding an i - t plot . electrodes modified with polyaniline nanoparticles ( synthesised according to example 1 ) were incorporated into a batch - cell set - up as described by killard et al ., 2001 . a potential of − 100 mv vs . ag / agcl was applied . following the reaching of a steady state , a number of additions of h 2 o 2 ( 8 mm ) were added to the cell , and the amperometric outputs monitored . electrodes modified with polyaniline nanoparticles ( synthesised according to example 1 ) were incorporated into a flow - cell set - up as described by killard et al ., 2001 . a potential of − 100 mv vs . ag / agcl was applied . following the reaching of a steady state , horseradish peroxidase ( hrp ) at varying concentrations from 5 to 0 . 01 μg ml − 1 , were passed over with h 2 o 2 ( 1 mm ) at a flow rate of 400 μl min − 1 for 20 s and the amperometric outputs monitored . characterisation of particles ( synthesised as per example 1 ) in aqueous dispersion a critical property of the polyaniline nanoparticle dispersions ( example i ) is the particle size in concentrated solution . dynamic light scattering was used to determine the particle sizes with the size distribution shown in fig1 a & amp ; b . this indicates that the particle sizes in the dispersions are in the range of 10 - 50 nm or 20 - 80 nm . there may have been conditions such as changes in physical conditions such as temperature or slight experimental differences to result in two distinctly different size ranges . beyond these possibilities , it is not known why there are variations in particle size . from a printing perspective , the typical pigment particle size is 100 - 400 nm ( magdassi & amp ; ben mo she , 2003 ) which can be printed using inkjet printer with the nozzle diameter ca . 30 - 60 μm ( le , 1998 ). therefore , the particle size of polyaniline nanoparticles should be at least in the same order of magnitude to the typical pigment particle size or even smaller . due to effects of polymer aggregation , particle sizes bigger than 1000 nm was deemed unsuitable due to the possibility of clogging the print head . a transmission electron microscope ( tem ) image of the polyaniline nanoparticles shows that the emulsion polymerisation approach used results in spherical particle formation . the polyaniline nanoparticles were imaged on a carbon sheet where the particles were measured to be between 30 - 80 nm ( fig2 ). a desktop epson printer that uses piezoelectric technology was used for printing the polyaniline nanoparticles ( synthesised as per example 1 ). unlike thermal printers such as hewlett packard printers , heat is not required for droplet formation . thermal printing uses ‘ shots ’ of heat at temperatures around 300 ° c . although the flashtime of these shots are only just 2 μs , such high temperatures could induce thermal degradation of the printing material . piezoelectric technology does not use heat , and does not degrade the material in any way . another important advantage is more flexible ink formulations and substrates can be used in piezo technology over thermal printing . printing of polyaniline nanoparticles ( 2 . 3 % w / v ) was carried out as described herein ( example 3 ) using an epson desktop c45 printer . in order to pattern a dispersion using the inkjet printing technique , particle size within the dispersion must be several orders of magnitude smaller than the nozzle of the inkjet printhead in order to prevent clogging and blockages of the nozzle . the diameter of the nozzle in epson piezo printheads is reported to be of the order of 30 μm . the polyaniline nanoparticles used in this research have been demonstrated to have a diameters ranging between 1 nm and 100 nm , such as 10 and 50 nm , 20 and 80 nm , and 30 and 80 nm according to particle size distribution analysis ( psd ) and hence could easily be printed on an epson printer . in addition , the nanoparticle dispersions contained the surfactants sds and dbsa that helped prevent clogging of the nozzles if any aggregation of the nanoparticles did occur in the printhead . both dbsa and sds are present in the aqueous dispersion which , as surfactants will serve to decrease the surface energy of the dispersion . whilst not wishing to be bound by theory , it is thought that this decrease in surface energy of the dispersion assists with the piezoelectric printing and the spreading of the ink on a substrate as it is deposited to form a homogenous film . a major advantage of the nanoparticle dispersions that was exploited was their insolubility in aqueous media despite being deposited from an aqueous dispersion . this results in an environmentally friendly , facile method to deposit films that can be exploited for solvent sensitive applications such as bio - or immunosensing . however , it was demonstrated that although the deposited films were insoluble , the films were not stable on all substrates . two conductive flexible substrates were employed for the printing of the nanoparticles — indium tin oxide ( ito ) ( example 2c ) and screen - printed electrodes ( example 2a ). the ito - sputtered plastic had a smooth morphology and although the nanoparticles adhered well to the substrate , the films peeled off in aqueous media . this was thought to be due to combination of the surface properties of the ito and the excess surfactant in the films . it was shown that when the ito - modified films were washed gently with ethanol before being immersed in aqueous buffers , the remaining film adhered to the surface . however , this process impaired the quality of the doped polyaniline films and hence , they exhibited poor electrochemistry . screen - printed carbon electrodes were also investigated as a substrate . the surface of screen - printed electrodes is extremely rough and were shown to be ideal for the printing of the nanoparticles . the nanoparticles adhered to the electrode surface , and were shown to be stable in aqueous media . it is important to note that although this work is demonstrated using inkjet printing films of polyaniline nanoparticles , the nanoparticles themselves maybe deposited in a number of ways — for example , but not limited to , electrochemical deposition , dip - coating , drop - coating , spin - coating , inkjet and screen - printing and roll - to - roll printing . profilometry was used to examine film morphology and thickness ( fig3 ). the surface of the inkjet printed film appears quite rough , and composed of nodules of particles which the nanoparticles continuously deposit on as the film grows . inkjet printed films ( fabricated according to example 3 ) on pet ( example 2d ) substrate were compared to films drop - coated from 5 μl of dispersion . inkjet printed films were shown to be highly homogeneous in nature ( fig3 a ). film thickness was measured to be 2 . 5 μm for 48 prints . drop - coated films results in ‘ doughnut shaped ’ inhomogenous films ( fig3 b ). the circumference of the film had a film thickness of 22 micron while the centre of the film was 10 times lower than that ( 2 . 2 micron ). this mode of deposition from an aqueous medium therefore is much less controlled . in addition , they were shown to be more homogeneous . fig3 a shows a 3 - d profilometry image of an inkjet printed film on bare pet . atomic force microscopy ( afm ) was used to investigate the resulting nanostructure of the inkjet printed polyaniline nanoparticulate films . gold mylar was used as substrate ( example 2e ) as the carbon - paste surfaces ( example 2a ) proved to have too rough a morphology to visualise the nanoparticles . fig4 a shows the morphology of the bare gold and the gold substrate modified with a single print of nanoparticles ( fig4 b ) for a scan size area of 1 micron . it can be observed that the nanoparticles cover the background of the gold film . fig4 c shows a film printed using 10 prints . the nodule size is much larger in this instance , probably due to increased aggregation upon drying in thicker films . section analysis was also carried out . the individual nanoparticle sizes were measured in the different films . the maximum width of these nanoparticles is about 66 nm for 5 prints and 133 nm for 10 prints . these particle sizes are larger than what was measured by the psd analysis , attributed to aggregation and increased agglomeration of the nanoparticles upon drying ( i . e ., removal of solvent ). afm tip distortion may also contribute . a cyclic voltammetric ( cv ) study of inkjet printed polyaniline films ( example 3 ) on carbon paste screen - printed electrodes ( example 2a ) were carried out in hcl ( 1 m ) ( fig5 a ). the electrochemistry of the films were shown to be well - defined and stable , containing two primary sets of reversible peaks . increasing the rate of change of potential causes the rate of electrolysis at the surface of the electrode to increase and results in increased peak currents . using a single polyaniline - modified electrode , scan rates were varied from 25 mv s − 1 to 500 mv s − 1 and the relationship between the peak current and scan rate was investigated ( fig5 b ). the linear relationship between the peak current and scan rate is in agreement with that of a thin film adsorbed electroactive species undergoing non - diffusional nernstian reaction . this study also demonstrates a level of stability of the films on the screen - printed carbon paste electrode surface . all desktop printers use mono - directional printing , where the printhead and the cartridge traverse across and back in the x - direction on a metal rod in a line recording operation , ejecting ink from nozzles according to the computer program it is in communication with . the substrate feeds out at a defined rate beneath the moving printhead , and takes the ink that is being printed . using this mono - directional printing method , the nanoparticles were seen to be composed of lines , rather than as filled , homogeneous circles . in order to overcome this problem , a bi - directional printing method was employed , where the substrate was rotated 90 ° for every alternate print . this resulted in much higher coverage in the x and y direction of the surface of the electrode . cyclic voltammograms were generated for multilayer films printed in the mono - and bi - directional direction ( fig6 a ). five films of each type were fabricated and the data shows that there are is no overall difference in the cvs between mono - and bi - directional printing . % rsd values were obtained for peak i for a number of prints ( fig6 b ). it was shown that when films composed of 20 or more prints , the % rsd for each of the prints was significantly lower for bi - directional than mono - directional printing , possibly due to enhanced homogenity . as a result , all further printing was carried out in the bi - directional mode . electrochemistry was carried out on both types of films , and was shown to be comparable in terms of peak potentials . the inkjet printed film has however a cv that is much more defined at potentials lower than 400 mv . although the inkjet printed films were estimated to be 10 times thinner than the bulk area of the drop - coated film , the peak currents of both films were approximately of equal magnitude . this allows us to estimate the volume of ink being deposited per inkjet print . assuming 50 prints results in a film with an equivalent volume of 2 . 5 μl . this would mean that 50 nl are being deposited per print ( fig7 ). a range of different ratios of aniline , oxidant and dopant were used for synthesis ( methodology as per example 1 , however ratios of materials were varied ) and resulting conductivity measurements of each of the cast polymer films ( drop - coated onto pet , substrate example 2d ) were performed using the four - point probe method ( table 1 ). the higher the proportion of aps used , the higher the conductivity obtained which could be attributed to a more efficient oxidation process during synthesis . higher dbsa proportions resulted in lower conductivity due to the insulating effect of this surfactant . incorporation of conducting materials such as gold nanoparticles or single - walled carbon nanotubes ( swnts ) into the polyaniline dispersions would help counteract the insulating effect of the dbsa and enhance the overall conductivity . nanoparticle dispersions synthesised using different ratios of aniline : aps : dbsa ( other than example 1 ) have all been demonstrated to be inkjet printable , however the size of the resulting nanoparticles may vary , but are all within the ‘ inkjet printable ’ range i . e . less than 1000 nm . the surface tension of each of the polyaniline nanodispersions in table 1 were measured and compared to the epson t038 black ink as shown in table 2 . all dispersions exhibited surface tensions in a range suitable for ink - jet printing ( 20 - 70 dyne cm − 1 ), although all were slightly below surface tensions of a commercial epson ink ( t038 ). a theological study of all of the polyaniline nanoparticle dispersions ( including those synthesized according to example 1 ) and the epson t038 ink was also performed and the results are shown in fig8 . at high shear rates (& gt ; 500 s − 1 ) the polyaniline nanoparticle dispersions and epson t038 ink were comparable and behaved as newtonian fluids . high shear rates are required inside the piezoelectric printhead nozzles ( 500 - 10 5 s − 1 [ 13 , 14 ]). at lower shear rates , epson t038 appears to be non - newtonian in nature , exhibiting shear thinning which is an ideal ink property . the polyaniline inks deviate slightly from newtonian , showing moderately higher viscosity at low shears . moreover , the viscosity of all of the polyaniline nanoparticle dispersions are in the suitable range for inkjet printing ( 0 . 5 - 40 mpa s ) although it was considerably lower than the viscosity of the epson t038 ink when shear rates lower than 500 s − 1 were applied . application of inkjet patterned films in ammonia sensing applications ( examples 4a & amp ; b conducting polymers , in particular , polyaniline , are beginning to emerge as excellent sensing materials for ammonia . the polymer is believed to be deprotonated by ammonia , which results in a measurable change in conduction . inkjet printed films were examined as a potential sensing platform for detecting ammonium ions . ammonia in equilibrium with ammonium ions , which comes from rain and snow . it is used frequently in refridgeration systems and needs to be monitored for effective cooling and for personal safety . chemical fertilizers containing ammonia can stimulate the growth of plankton and be toxic for fishes . to prevent the water pollution , it is very important to monitor the level of ammonium ions . furthermore , measurement of ammonium ions in biosensors has found an increasing application in the past 10 years because ammonium ions are a metabolic product in many enzymatic reactions . for example , ammonium and bicarbonate ions can be produced by the metabolism of urea with enzymatic action of urease . therefore , urea can be detected by sensing its metabolic product , i . e ., ammonium ions . other applications for ammonia sensing are given in table 3 . on exposure to ammonia , the polyaniline backbone is deprotonated . in the same way , certain amines such as dimethylamine , trimethylamine and triethylamine interact with the polyaniline , though the interactions will be influenced in part by the substituents on the nitrogen of the amine . inkjet printed films of polyaniline ( example 3 ) on a disposable screen - printed carbon - paste electrode platforms ( example 2a ) provides a facile route to fabricating ammonia sensors . they can be mass - produced at extremely low cost and can provide comparable detection limits and linear ranges as commercial sensors based on metal oxides . fig9 a & amp ; b are the amperometric responses of the inkjet printed polyaniline films ( deposited on the carbon paste screen - printed electrode platform , example 2a ) to ammonium ions in solution using a flow injection setup ( example 4a ). using a flow rate of 400 μl min − 1 , the response time is approximately 350 s at high concentrations of ammonia ( 50 ppm ). at lower concentrations of ammonia , the response time decreases to about 150 s . with further optimisation , these response times could be further reduced . the flow rate determines the rate at which steady state conditions are established in the flow cell . relative humidity may also effect the response time , and this was not investigated for these experiments . fig1 a shows the amperometric responses for the inkjet printed polyaniline nanoparticle films on carbon - paste screen - printed electrodes to the ammonium ion from 0 to 85 ppm . the potential was held at − 0 . 4 v vs . ag / agcl . the buffer used was a phosphate buffer ( 0 . 1 m , ph 6 . 6 ). fig1 b & amp ; c show the two linear ranges for nh 4 + ( 0 - 5 . 3 ppm and 10 - 85 ppm ) within that range . inkjet printed polyaniline films can also be used to detect ammonia in the gas phase ( example 4b ). in this case the substrate / electrode is of the form of an interdigitated array ( ida ); screen printed using silver ink ( see example 2b ). the polyaniline nanoparticle film is inkjet printed as described in example 3 . once printed , these polyaniline nanoparticle - modified idas were heat cured at 75 ° c . for 30 minutes . various configurations and dimensions of ida can be employed and fig1 shows an example of the silver ida electrode with a 25 layer polyaniline nanoparticle film inkjet printed over it ( 25 × 14 mm dimension , in this example ). this configuration will be referred to as a pani - ida electrode from here on . the pani - ida electrodes are used in a 2 - electrode cell configuration ( i . e . anode and cathode ). at a particular potential , the current passed between the electrodes is dependent on the conductivity of the film . applying a fixed potential between the electrodes , results in a gradual decrease in conductivity under ordinary atmospheric conditions , presumably due to a change in the oxidation state of the polymer to a non - conducting form . this effect can be countered by applying a waveform to the electrode ( i . e . saw - tooth as applied in cyclic voltammetry ). fig1 shows the current response obtained for varying potential . the slope of the plot ( related to the conductivity of the film ) is independent of scan rate . the saw - tooth plot results in a linear relationship between potential and current — implying ohmic behaviour is being obeyed . unlike in the case of applied fixed potential , the pani - ida displays stable behaviour over the long term . fig1 shows the response of the pani - ida electrode when exposed to ammonia vapour . fig1 a shows the current - potential raw data plot while fig1 b shows the current - time response obtained when the current is sampled at the indicated potentials . initially , under atmospheric conditions , the stable ohmic plot is obtained . on exposure to ammonia , the conductivity of the polyaniline rapidly decreases — as evidenced by the decreasing slope in fig1 a and the drop in sampled current in fig1 b . once the ammonia is removed , the electrode slowly recovers . the effect of ambient temperature on the electrode response is given in fig1 . the current measured for the pani - ida is seen to display a positive coefficient with temperature for the range 20 to 120 ° c .— implying that the inherent conductivity of the polyaniline nanoparticles is increasing with temperature . as can be seen for fig1 a , the electrode displays good thermal stability over short time scales for temperatures up to approximately 120 ° c . this effect is reversible with the measured current returning to base as the temperature drops . at temperatures over 140 ° c ., an irreversible drop in measured current is observed as the polyaniline undergoes thermal degradation . this drop in conductivity accelerates with increasing temperature . the long term effects of temperature exposure are given in fig1 . in this case a pani - ida was subjected to a temperature of 75 ° c . over seven days . the pani - ida was removed from the oven and allowed cool to room temperature prior to the measurement being taken . on the first day , a sharp increase in measured current is observed before and after heating . for freshly prepared pani - idas , exposure to 75 ° c . for 30 minutes was found to result in a noticeable increase in the measured current , 36 % in this case ( generally between 25 - 50 %). as noted previously , this was employed as a curing method , performed after pani - ida preparation . over the following days a gradual drop in measured current was observed — though the pani - ida remains functional after this time . pani - idas stored at room temperature show a similar drift , though over a much longer timescale and retain functionality for 6 months and longer . response time of the electrode has been observed to be fairly rapid . fig1 a displays the response obtained for a 25 layer inkjet - printed pani - ida electrode when exposed to the vapour of 0 . 25 % ammonia solution (˜ 60 ppm ). from 4 replicates , it can be seen that the t50 ( the time required to come to 50 % of the final volume ) and t90 ( the time required to come to 90 % of the final volume ) of the sensor fall well within the 90 s response required by the instrument society of america . in fig1 it can be noted that the sensor does not recover as rapidly . to this end a number of different methods of enhancing the sensor recovery were investigated . in fig1 b , the results of the different techniques are present along with normal recovery in atmosphere . by far the best method of recovery was found to be applying a stream of heated air across the electrode via heat gun . the heated air may be applied above the sensor . alternatively , the heated air may be applied directly to the sensor . it can be seen that the measured current more than doubles on application of the heat before returning to the initial state after the heat gun was removed — in agreement with the data presented in fig1 . with this method , recovery times & lt ; 90 s could be achieved . it should be noted that oven heating had a similar effect — rapid recovery of electrode response . fig1 shows the results of headspace analysis performed on a 25 inkjet layered pani - ida . in this study , the pani - ida was placed within the gas jar with a commercially available ammonia sensor ( impulse xp , honeywell analytics ). as the ammonia concentration within the gas jar was built up , the response of the pani - ida and impulse xp were noted . the inset of fig1 shows the current drop recorded for the pani - ida as the concentration of ammonia increases . the main plot shows the results obtained when the difference of measured and initial current ( 9 . 23 μa , in this case ) is plotted against the log of ammonia concentration . the initial current , i 0 , is the value measured with no ammonia present . a quasi - linear response is obtained with an increasing deviation observed at greater concentrations . the large drop in measured current observed from 0 to 15 ppm ammonia ( 9 . 23 to 1 . 23 μa ) tends to imply concentrations below this level should be observable . application of inkjet patterned films in a sensing system for hydrogen peroxide ( methodology according to example 4c ) accurate sensing of hydrogen peroxide is also important in many fields . it is used in many industrial applications as an oxidising , bleaching and sterilising agent . it is also a waste product in atomic power stations . the printed circuit board ( pcb ) manufacturing industry employs etching baths based on sulphuric acid for various production processes , such as the manufacture of through - hole plating for multiplayer pcbs ( black - hole method ). in most cases , the etching baths consist of a hydrogen peroxide component of about 25 g / l . the concentration of hydrogen peroxide , in particular , is decisive for the quality of the product , and should be kept as nearly constant as possible . depending on the number of boards being processed , the hydrogen peroxide concentration in the etching bath diminishes as a result of dispersal and decomposition . the jumo corrotrode is a potentiometric sensor that is marketed for this niche market and functions as a hydrogen peroxide detector . over the last twenty years , hydrogen peroxide has become the most important bleaching agent in textile industry . this growth founding the use of hydrogen peroxide has also taken place in other industrial applications , because of the favourable ecological properties of hydrogen peroxide ( reaction products are oxygen and water ) compared to commonly used bleaching products like naocl and naclo 2 . the quality of the bleached product is strongly dependent on the concentration of hydrogen peroxide . the concentration of hydrogen peroxide is generally determined off - line , after bleaching , by using optical techniques . an insufficient concentration of hydrogen peroxide may cause insufficient bleaching effects and lowers the quality and colour fastness of the textile dyeing process , that often comes after bleaching . on the other hand , excess concentrations of hydrogen peroxide cause degradation of the textile structure itself . russell mainstreams market a potentiometric hydrogen peroxide probe sensor ( wp7 hydrogen peroxide probe ) suitable for water disinfection applications . this sensor is resistant to chemicals and surface agents due to a special membrane system protecting the sensor . the sensitivity of the sensor is in the range of 0 to 2000 ppm hydrogen peroxide however the response time of the sensor is slow with a t90 ( time required to come to 90 % of final value ) of approximately 4 minutes ; this response time falls outside the 90 s response time required by the instrument society of america . another market that demands h 2 o 2 analysis is the clinical field , where exhaled breath is often monitored for h 2 o 2 . hydrogen peroxide in the breath is indicative of lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases . up to now , a common method to collect the exhaled breath condensate is to use a special cooling collector including a freezing cooling tube ( usually cooled using ice or liquid nitrogen ) and cooling machine , which has a refrigerator &# 39 ; s circuit . once collected , the condensate is analyzed off - line by techniques , such as spectroscopy , with assistance of peroxidase . h 2 o 2 is also the most valuable marker for oxidative stress , recognized as one of the major risk factors in progression of disease - related pathophysiological complications in diabetes , atherosclerosis , renal disease , cancer , aging and other condition . hydrogen peroxide sensors are also needed for the development of biosensors based on enzyme oxidases . universal sensors market an amperometric peroxide electrode based on a platinum electrode for these types of applications at a cost of approximately $ 630 usd . odour control — oxidises hydrogen sulfide , mercaptans , amines and aldehydes . h 2 o 2 may be applied directly to aqueous wastes containing these odorants , or to wet scrubbers used to remove them from airstreams . corrosion control — destroys residual chlorine and reduced sulphur compounds thiosulphates , sulphites , and sulphides ) which form corrosive acids when condensed onto processing equipment and oxidised by air . biological oxygen demand ( bod ) and chemical oxygen demand ( cod ) removal — oxidizes both organic and inorganic pollutants which contribute to bod and cod — h 2 o 2 may be needed to oxidize the more resistant substances . h 2 o 2 may also affect bod / cod removal by enhancing the performance of other processes . inorganic oxidation — oxidizes cyanides , nox / sox , nitrites , hydrazine , carbonyl sulphide , and other reduced sulphur compounds mentioned above ( odour / corrosion control ). organic oxidation — hydrolyses formaldehyde , carbon disulfide , carbohydrates , organophosphorous and nitrogen compounds , and various water - soluble polymers ; and ( with catalysis ) destroys phenols , benzene , toluene , ethylbenzene and xylene ( btex ) pesticides , solvents , plasticizers , chelants , and virtually any other organic requiring treatment . metals oxidation — oxidises ferrous iron , manganese , arsenic , and selenium to improve their adsorption , filtration , or precipitation from process waters and wastewaters . toxicity reduction / biodegradability improvement — with catalysis , chemically digests complex organics into smaller , less toxic and more biodegradable fragments . disinfection / bio - control — checks excess biogrowth in water supplies and cooling circuits , and ( with catalysis ) disinfects process waters and biological effluents . each of the applications mentioned above requires monitoring of hydrogen peroxide at some level . however , there is not sufficient technology available for generating specific , portable peroxide sensors for many of these types of applications . extensive studies have been performed with bulk polymer conducting films composed of polyaniline . such films are extremely useful materials and may be used as a modified electrode material as the films can act as mediatorless electron transfer layers . one process where such use is particularly useful is in the area of biosensing where the conducting polymer can efficiently link enzymes to electrodes through a process referred to as direct electron transfer . such a linking process may allow many reactions to take place that would , otherwise be thermodynamically unfavourable without a biological species . for example , hydrogen peroxide reduction . in the presence of an enzyme this can take place at relatively low potentials , e . g ., − 0 . 1 v vs . ag / agcl . one phenomenon that has not been shown to be possible on these bulk films has been the significant direct reduction of hydrogen peroxide . however , using the nanoparticles created from this bulk material , its behaviour changes dramatically . the phenomenon was demonstrated with electrodes comprised of nanoparticles of polyaniline deposited ( by inkjet printing ( see example 3 ) or other means ) onto screen printed carbon - paste electrodes ( example 2a ). the significantly enhanced sensing ability we are seeing from these materials maybe as a result of the nanostructuring . this may be attributed to the significant increases in the surface area brought about by the material . using the inkjet printing technique of example 3 , polyaniline nanoparticle films were prepared using 20 prints . these modified electrodes were studied for their sensing properties towards h 2 o 2 . amperograms were recorded for the reduction of h 2 o 2 at − 100 mv vs ag / agcl in phosphate buffer , ph 6 . 8 ( example 4c ). this was compared to the same process at an electropolymerised bulk polyaniline film ( fabricated according to grennan et al ., 2001 ). these amperograms on the different polyaniline materials was compared in fig1 . the current observed for h 2 o 2 reduction was significantly higher for the inkjet printed nanoparticulate thin film than that observed on bulk polymer ( approx . 100 fold ). this significant increase in the current observed for h 2 o 2 reduction at the nanoparticulate films was attributed to the higher surface area to volume ratio of these materials along with their good electrical properties compared with bulk polymer . fig1 shows the amperometric responses for the inkjet printed films towards h 2 o 2 , where the sensitivity was found to be 0 . 5419 μa mm − 1 and the detection limit was found to be 1 . 146 × 10 − 3 m based on a signal - to - noise ratio of 3 . the linear range was found to span over three orders of magnitude , from 8 × 10 − 3 - 1 . 12 × 10 − 1 m ( r = 0 . 995 , n = 3 ). to the author &# 39 ; s knowledge , this appears to be the first report of a h 2 o 2 sensor with linearity over this range . the analytical parameters reported here are suitable for application in a glucose biosensor , where h 2 o 2 can be exploited for glucose detection as it is a stoiciometrically equivalent product of catalysis of glucose by glucose oxidase ( god ). the clinical range for glucose detection in commercial products is between 1 × 10 − 3 m and 3 . 5 × 10 − 2 m ( wang et al ., 2005 ), which falls within the linear range of this peroxide sensor . in terms of reproducibility , it was found that the relative standard deviation ( rsd ) of the inkjet printed nanoparticulate polyaniline sensor was 2 . 13 % for nine successive measurements of 8 × 10 − 3 m h 2 o 2 . application of inkjet patterned films in biosensing applications ( methodology according to example 4d ) in order to demonstrate the suitability of the polyaniline nanoparticle inkjet printed films towards biosensing , an amperometric assay for free horseradish peroxidase ( hrp ) was carried out . this was done according to the example 4d , where polyaniline nanoparticles ( example 1 ) were inkjet printed ( example 3 ) onto carbon - paste screen - printed electrodes ( example 2c ). hrp can bind directly to polyaniline and when bound , the enzyme ( hrp ) catalyzes the reduction of h 2 o 2 , which results in an increase in the hrp catalytic signal ( morrin et al ., 2003 ). this is provided that the polyaniline film can behave as an effective charge transfer mediator between bound hrp and the electrode surface . fig2 demonstrates that the inkjet printed films are capable of charge transfer mediation between bound , catalyzed hrp and the electrode surface . the figure shows the binding curve of hrp to the electrode surface in the presence of h 2 o 2 . the binding if hrp is confirmed as a permanent one by the replacement of buffer with h 2 o 2 , subsequent to the hrp binding event . enzymatic catalytic signal is restored showing that the catalytic signal was purely due to bound , rather than free hrp . this could also be theoretically possible for enzymes such as urease or creatinine iminohydrolase , that catalyse their respective substrates , urea and creatinine , to produce ammonia . given the demonstration of the sensitivity of polyaniline nanoparticle films to ammonia , low - cost biosensors for such analytes is also possible . immunoassays use the specific antigen - antibody complexation for analytical purposes . enzyme immunoassays are well established in clinical diagnostics . for the development of hand - held devices which can be used for point of care measurements , electrochemical immunoassays are promising alternatives to existing immunochemical tests . moreover , for opaque or optically dense matrices electrochemical methods are superior . competitive and non - competitive electrochemical immunoassays have been developed often with enzymes as labels using conducting polymer as the diffusionless mediator . the patterned polyaniline films may be used as an enzyme - based immunosensor in the following theoretical situation : a detection antibody is immobilized to the polyaniline surface in the first instance . this surface is then exposed to an unknown concentration of antigen of interest and an enzyme —( e . g ., hrp ) labeled antigen . both of these species are allowed to bind to the antibody immobilized to the surface of pani . all excess ( unbound ) material is then removed and the surface of pani is exposed to substrate ( e . g ., h 2 o 2 ) which is catalysed at the surface by the bound enzyme - labeled antigen ( hrp ). the polyaniline nanoparticle inkjet printed film would be used as a direct electron transfer mediator in this instance ( rather than using a soluble mediator ). the amount of electrochemical signal generated would be inversely proportional to the amount of ‘ free ’ unknown antigen ( fig2 ). grennan et al . ( 2003 ) reported a regeneration - free , multi - calibrant strategy in an immunoassay on electropolymerized polyaniline films . hrp was employed as a label for the assay and was catalysed by h 2 o 2 . in order to demonstrate the suitability of these inkjet printed films towards this more sophisticated type of approach , free hrp was used again as the biological molecule to be measured . fig2 shows the changes in slope of the amperometric signal as different concentrations of hrp are passed over the electrode surface for short times . this shows that these inkjet patterned polyaniline nanoparticle films are very sensitive towards low concentrations ( mg ml − 1 ) of hrp , and therefore may hold promise in an immunosensor approach , with their major advantage being their ease of fabrication . a method to pattern high quality conducting polymer films on conducting substrates by exploiting the nanoparticulate form of the polymer for inkjet printing is illustrated . aqueous dispersions of polyaniline nanoparticles were inkjet printed onto pet - based screen - printed carbon electrodes ( example 2a ). the resulting films adhered well to the electrode surface , and electrochemistry was performed in aqueous media with no effect on the film stability . the polyaniline films had well - defined , reversible electrochemistry in acidic media and their use is described in two applications : direct ammonia sensing and a biosensing application using hrp . the results indicate that the conducting polymer nanoparticles have a wide range of applications in areas such as chemical and biosensing . while the description specifically refers to polyaniline it will be appreciated that any suitable conducting polymer material may be used . examples of other conducting polymers are polyacetylenes , polydiacetylenes , polyparaphenylenes , polypyrroles , polythiophenes , polybithiophenes , polyisothiophenes , polyphenylenesulphides and polyanilines . a more comprehensive list is given in handbook of organic conductive molecules and polymers / edited by hari singh nalwa ( 1997 ). the invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described which may be varied in detail . ballarin , b ., fraleoni - morgera , a ., frascaro , d ., marazzita , s ., piana , c ., setti , l . 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