A disposable paper-based electrochemical biosensor decorated by electrospun cellulose acetate nanofibers for highly sensitive bio-detection

Abstract

Paper-based electrochemical sensors have the characteristics of flexibility, biocompatibility, environmental protection, low cost, wide availability, and hydropathy, which make them very suitable for the development and application of biological detection. This work proposes electrospun cellulose acetate nanofiber (CA NF)-decorated paper-based screen-printed (PBSP) electrode electrochemical sensors. The CA NFs were directly collected on the PBSP electrode through an electrospinning technique at an optimized voltage of 16 kV for 10 min. The sensor was functionalized with different bio-sensitive materials for detecting different targets, and its sensing capability was evaluated by CV, DPV, and chronoamperometry methods. The test results demonstrated that the CA NFs enhanced the detection sensitivity of the PBSP electrode, and the sensor showed good stability, repeatability, and specificity (p < 0.01, N = 3). The electrochemical sensing of the CA NF-decorated PBSP electrode exhibited a short detection duration of ∼5–7 min and detection ranges of 1 nmol mL⁻¹–100 μmol mL⁻¹, 100 fg mL⁻¹–10 μg mL⁻¹, and 1.5 × 10²–10⁶ CFU mL⁻¹ and limits of detection of 0.71 nmol mL⁻¹, 89.1 fg mL⁻¹, and 30 CFU mL⁻¹ for glucose, Ag85B protein, and E. coli O157:H7, respectively. These CA NF-decorated PBSP sensors can be used as a general electrochemical tool to detect, for example, organic substances, proteins, and bacteria, which are expected to achieve point-of-care testing of pathogenic microorganisms and have wide application prospects in biomedicine, clinical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and food safety.