Inkjet Printed Carbon Nanotube Electrodes for Measuring Pyocyanin and Uric Acid in a Wound Fluid Simulant and Culture Media

Polyacrylamide-coated, carbon nanotube (PA/CNT) electrodes were prepared by an inkjet printing process and used to measure pyocyanin and uric acid in a wound fluid simulant at 37 °C. These two molecules are potential indicators of infection, and therefore their detection could prove useful for monitoring wound healing. Pyocyanin is a marker for the common wound bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Our long-term goal is to use these inexpensive and disposable electrodes to measure biomarkers of wound healing directly. In this proof-of-concept work, studies were performed in a wound fluid simulant to evaluate the stability of the electrodes and their responsiveness for the two bioanalytes. The PA/CNT inkjet-printed electrodes and electrical contacts were stable with unchanging physical and electrochemical properties in the wound fluid simulant over a 7–8-day period at 37 °C. The detection figures of merit for pyocyanin in the simulant at 37 °C were as follows: linear over the physiologically relevant range = 0...