Disposable Miniaturized Electrochemical Sensing Platform With Laser-Induced Reduced Graphene Oxide Electrodes for Multiplexed Biochemical Analysis

Metabolic biomarkers, such as Dopamine (DA), Uric acid (UA), and Ascorbic acid (AA), have significant roles in determining the physiological functioning of the human body. These are often analyzed through clinical lab-based procedures which are bulky and require skilled technicians. In view of this, the design, development, and fabrication of a portable, cost-effective, user-friendly, and disposable device for electro-analytical detection, leading to point-of-care (POC) detection of these metabolic biomarkers is a pressing need. This work reports a laser-induced reduced graphene oxide (LIrGO) based miniaturized paper device fabricated by laser ablation of a lab-grade paper using a blue diode laser (450 nm). A three-electrode electrochemical platform was designed with the LIrGO electrodes, whereby bare rGO electrodes were employed as working and counter electrodes, and Ag/AgCl ink-coated rGO was used as the reference electrode. The device was characterized morphologically by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and electrochemically by a potentiostat. The prepared device was subjected to electrochemical sensing of Dopamine (DA), Uric Acid (UA), and Ascorbic Acid (AA). Furthermore, the effects of several sensory parameters, such as concentration, pH, and interference, were analyzed. A linear range of 10-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$5000 ~\mu \text{M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> was obtained for all three analytes with the limit of detection (LoD) being <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8.67 ~\mu \text{M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$9.67 ~\mu \text{M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$9.24 ~\mu \text{M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and the limit of quantification (LoQ) being <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$26.01 ~\mu \text{M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$29.01 ~\mu \text{M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$27.72 ~\mu \text{M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for DA, UA and AA, respectively. Finally, the device was tested for non-interference with co-analytes and validated by testing a real sample of human blood serum. This work demonstrates a proof-of-principle of utilizing bare LIrGO for selective sensing which will open door to multiplexed and POC sensing.