Passive direct methanol fuel cells acting as fully autonomous electrochemical biosensors: Application to sarcosine detection

Passive direct methanol fuel cells acting as fully autonomous electrochemical biosensors: Application to sarcosine detection

[Display omitted] •Self-powered fuel cell/biosensor and equipment-free reading device for sarcosine.•Fuel cell with a sarcosine imprinted polymer that turn the power of the cell concentration dependent.•Hybrid cell triggers electrochromic unit to change colour in a concentration dependent manner.•Fu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of electroanalytical chemistry (Lausanne, Switzerland) Vol. 922; p. 116710
Main Authors: Ferreira, Nádia S., Carneiro, Liliana P.T., Viezzer, Christian, Almeida, Maria J.T., Marques, Ana C., Pinto, Alexandra M.F.R., Fortunato, Elvira, Sales, M. Goreti F.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-10-2022
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:
Acrylamide
Amino acids
Autonomy
Biomarkers
Biosensors
Bulk polymerization
Cancer biomarker
Carbon
Carbon black
Chemical fuels
Color
Colour display
Electrochromic cell
Electrochromic cells
Electrochromism
Fuel cells
Imprinted polymers
Methanol
Molecularly imprinted polymer
Passive direct methanol fuel cell
Phosphonic acids
Power sources
Sarcosine
Passive direct methanol fuel cell
Cancer biomarker
Electrochromic cell
Colour display
Molecularly imprinted polymer
Sarcosine
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Summary:[Display omitted] •Self-powered fuel cell/biosensor and equipment-free reading device for sarcosine.•Fuel cell with a sarcosine imprinted polymer that turn the power of the cell concentration dependent.•Hybrid cell triggers electrochromic unit to change colour in a concentration dependent manner.•Fuel cell stack to have sufficient energy for triggering a colour change at the electrochromic cell.•The colour depends on the concentration of sarcosine, generating an equipment free approach. This work describes an innovative electrochemical biosensor that advances its autonomy toward an equipment-free design. The biosensor is powered by a passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and signals the response via an electrochromic display. Briefly, the anode side of the DMFC power source was modified with a biosensor layer developed using molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) technology to detect sarcosine (an amino acid derivative that is a potential cancer biomarker). The biosensor layer was anchored on the surface of the anode carbon electrode (carbon black with Pt/Ru, 40:20). This was done by bulk radical polymerization with acrylamide, bis-acrylamide, and vinyl phosphonic acid. This layer selectively interacted with sarcosine when integrated into the passive DMFC (single or multiple, in a stack of 4), which acted as a transducer element in a concentration-dependent process. Serial assembly of a stack of hybrid DMFC/biosensor devices triggered an external electrochromic cell (EC) that produced a colour change. Calibrations showed a concentration-dependent sarcosine response from 3.2 to 2000 µM, which is compatible with the concentration of sarcosine in the blood of prostate cancer patients. The final DMFC/biosensor-EC platform showed a colour change perceptible to the naked eye in the presence of increasing sarcosine concentrations. This colour change was controlled by the DMFC operation, making this approach a self-controlled and self-signalling device. Overall, this approach is a proof-of-concept for a fully autonomous biosensor powered by a chemical fuel. This simple and low-cost approach offers the potential to be deployed anywhere and is particularly suitable for point-of-care (POC) analysis.
ISSN:1572-6657
1873-2569
DOI:10.1016/j.jelechem.2022.116710