Novel fully screen printed flexible electrochemical sensor for the investigation of electron transfer between thiol functionalized viologen and gold clusters

A novel electrochemical sensor was fabricated for the investigation of the effect of electron transfer between glutathione (GS) protected gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and a new C4-thiol functionalized viologen axle molecule (V2+-SH) on pseudorotaxane formation. The sensor was fully screen printed with silver (Ag) ink on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. Square wave voltammetry (SQWV) based response of the sensor toward V2+-SH in the presence of Au25 or 4 nm-Au demonstrated one-electron transfer processes, based on 59 mV changes in peak potentials to more negative values. The response demonstrated the capability of the novel electrochemical sensor to be used for studying complex systems in volumes as small as 5–10 μL, with less sample preparation time.