EAPSI: Inkjet Printed Paper-Based Chemical Sensor for Vitamin E

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Measuring the amount of vitamin E present in blood is difficult because of the complex nature of blood, overall cost, amount of time, and instrumentation involved. The development of a chemical sensor ink, which is then printed onto paper, would be a novel approach to determining vitamin E levels in biological fluids. For years, people have been using ink jet printing in their homes and offices; however, it has transitioned from an office and home application to an application for chemical sensing. Modern inkjet printers support the creation of precise and contactless deposition of microscopic sized droplets of the chemical sensor onto paper. This award supports research that combines inkjet printing with molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) to develop a new sensor that can be used to test levels of Vitamin E in bodily fluids. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Daniel Citterio at Keio University in Tokyo Japan, who is an expert in inkjet printing technology for the development of microfluidic paper-based analytical devises. Results from this collaboration could allow for a point of care testing system that would be accurate, precise, reproducible, and overall cheaper than current blood testing methods. The proposed chemical sensor would utilize an aqueous, non-covalently crosslinked network, MIP as an ink to be printed onto paper based substrates. The key challenge that must be overcome is creating an MIP that is both aqueous and presents a strong and selective binding affinity for vitamin E. MIP will be formulated and printed onto paper so that vitamin E levels can be measured using a fluorescence response indicator. Dr. Citterio?s group was the first to demonstrate the function of using ink jet printing for the deposition of biochemical sensors by microfluidic patterning of the substrates. Creating such a technology could have multiple uses in many different fields as a new class of chemical sensors. The NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.