Ultra Flexible Paper Based Electrochemical Sensors: Effect of Mechanical Contortion upon Electrochemical Performance

The influence of mechanical contortion upon the electrochemical performance of screen‐printed graphite paper‐based electroanalytical sensing platforms is evaluated and contrasted with traditionally employed polymeric based screen‐printed graphite sensors. Such a situation of implementation can be envisaged for the potential sensing of analytes on the skin where such sensors are based, for example in clothing where mechanical contortion, viz, bending will occur, and as such, its effect upon electrochemical sensors is of both fundamental and applied importance. The effect of mechanical contortion or stress upon electrochemical behaviour and performance is of screen printed sensors is explored. Comparisons are made between both paper‐ and polymeric‐ based sensing platforms that are evaluated towards the sensing of the well characterised electrochemical probes potassium ferrocyanide(II), hexaammine‐ruthenium(III) chloride and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). It is determined that the paper‐based sensors offer greater resilience in terms of electrochemical performance after mechanical stress. We gain insights into the role played by both the effect of the time of mechanical contortion and additionally the potentially detrimental effects of repeated contortion are explored. These unique paper‐based sensors hold promise for widespread applications where flexible and ultra‐low cost sensors are required such as applications into medical devices were ultra‐low cost sensors are a pre‐requisite, but also for utilisation within applications which require the implementation of ultra‐flexible electroanalytical sensing platforms such as in the case of wearable sensors, whilst maintaining useful electrochemical performances.