PhD thesis supervisor: dr. Rokas Žalnėravičius (apply for recommendation)
Fabrication and characterization of disposable porous electrodes for detection of medically relevant biomarkers
To date, screen-printed electrodes (SPE) are based on relatively thin-film formation on various substrates. Unfortunately, the sensing part of electrodes often has a low surface area, limiting their application in biosensor design. To pass this challenge, NPs have been used; however, their coverage on SPE isn’t suitable for high-scale production, thus new solutions for nanostructurisation are under extensive investigation. Electrochemical surface modification may be a promising, scalable approach for modifying bare SPEs, providing them with higher surface areas suitable for biorecognition element immobilisation.
This PhD project aims to address the SPE nanostructurisation challenge, which will be useful not only in a fundamental sense but also open new practical applications. Electrochemical etching/deposition methods will be used to form porous metal surfaces on commercial SPEs, thereby enabling more effective electron transfer between the biomarker, recognition element, and electrode. The electrochemical and SERS-based biosensors will be designed. The areas of application for low-cost sensors are numerous, ranging from pharmaceutical and food sciences to wearables and clinical diagnostics, especially in resource-limited settings, where price matters most. However, before successfully integrating specific disposable sensors into commercial products, they must meet requirements such as extremely low-cost production, ease of use, rapid analysis, and short response time.