Drawing Electrochemical Sensors Using a 3D Printing Pen

This communication demonstrates that a 3D printing pen, commercially-available as a toy for kids, can be used to draw thermoplastic electrochemical sensors using conductive filaments over any desirable format and substrate. A polylactic acid filament containing graphene or carbon black was passed through the 3D pen that works as a handheld 3D printer (fused deposition modeling type). As proof-of-concepts, we select three designs, the first one analogous to a conventional carbon-paste electrode, the second one containing the three electrodes in a cylindrical tube and the third one similar to co...