CHAPTER 10: Conducting Polymer-based Disposable Sensors

The global market of disposable biosensors has experienced tremendous growth in recent years because of the increasing demand for testing outside of central laboratories. These types of sensors provide critical analytical information for anyone, anywhere and at any time, without contamination and recalibration. Several materials have been incorporated in low-cost electrodes for the development of disposable electrochemical sensors for biomedical applications. Among them, conducting polymers (CPs) have proven that they are the most suitable candidate due to their excellent properties. These properties include high conductivity, redox behaviours, inkjet printing ability, active functionalities in the polymer backbone, biocompatibility, cost-effectiveness and mass production, etc. CPs containing functional groups such as NH₂ and COOH have been used for the covalent and electrostatic attachment of several biocatalysts. Notably, the redox-active characteristics of CPs offer to enable the biosensors to operate at very low potential without the use of external redox reagents. Further, CPs have displayed a high selectivity for analytes while fabricating by molecularly imprinting technique. Moreover, the biosensing properties of CPs have been enhanced by the integration of nanomaterials. This chapter focusses on recent developments of CPs-based disposable electrochemical biosensors for biomedical applications.