title: Printed composite electrodes for in-situ wound pH monitoring.
abstract: New technologies are essential for intelligent wound management and to provide tools that facilitate a greater understanding of wounds and healing physiology. pH is an important marker for many processes in the wound environment; it cannot be fully utilised due to the inherent lack of suitable technologies currently available. The development and proof-of-concept testing for an electrochemical system that exploits pad-printed carbon-uric acid composite electrodes is detailed. Uric acid is incorporated to act as a biologically-safe pH probe within in the sensor assembly that can be manipulated to offer a simple voltammetric response. The development of the composite sensors, the activation of the basal carbon, and the surface deposition of 1,2-diaminobenzene to prevent biofouling are detailed. The prototype sensing assembly is shown to enable the interference-free measurement of pH (and linear quantification of endogenous uric acid) even in the presence of high ascorbic acid concentrations. The experimental developments culminate in a standard deviation of 0.164 for 20 replicates performed in simulated wound fluid, and sensitive monitoring of pH across a wide analytical range (pH 4-10) in simulated wound fluid. These findings suggest that printed carbon-uric acid composites may offer a novel, cheap and reliable mechanism for simple pH measurements at wound surfaces, a potentially powerful tool with clinical utility for wound management and one that may enable a greater understanding of pH implications on wound physiology, and the effects of dressings and treatments.
authors.affiliation: Biomedicine, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, LS1 3HE, UK. Electronic address: d.sharp@leedsmet.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Duncan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sharp
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D010655:Phenylenediamines / Q000737:chemistry; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D014945:Wound Healing
chemical_list: D010655:Phenylenediamines; D014527:Uric Acid; D002244:Carbon; C034193:1,2-diaminobenzene
keywords: Composite; Healing; Infection; Sensor; Wound; pH