Electrically conductive Graphene ink enables printing

Using their proprietary HDPlas plasma technology, Haydale wwas able to develop the required surface functionalised graphene ink that was gravure printed and implemented as a base biosensor on cell culture microplates. The presentation provides detail of the graphene ink biosensor development, its electrical characterisation and cytotoxicity testing.

Further information is provided on fabrication of the gravure printing cylinders and the R2R gravure printing process using the graphene ink. The presentation concludes that this collaborative project has successfully demonstrated gravure printing with the developed functionalised graphene ink.

The developed graphene ink has been shown not to be cytotoxic and thus suitable for use in biosensors. Cell adhesion is enhanced by additional protein coating on the graphene structures.

The next stage of this project is to validate the performance of the biosensors in a series of target applications. Haydale has previously reported on grant awards for two biosensor ink projects. Both are progressing well and should lead to the development of commercial products in approximately 12-18 months’ time. One of these projects is using a screen printed process to develop an intelligent sensor that measures diabetes levels in blood samples, the second, is for a general pathogen detection unit on a reel to reel system run by Frauhofer IBMT and other consortium partners.