Sensors and Actuators B 208 (2015) 475–484 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical jo ur nal home page: www.elsevier.com/locate/snb Design and fabrication of a new nonwoven-textile based platform for biosensor construction Gülc ¸ in Baysal a , Sakip Önder b,1 , ˙ Ikilem Göcek a , Levent Trabzon c , Hüseyin Kızıl d , Fatma Nes ¸ e Kök b , Burc ¸ ak Karagüzel Kayao˘ glu a,∗ a Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design, Department of Textile Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey b Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul, Turkey c Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey d Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 15 April 2014 Received in revised form 6 November 2014 Accepted 8 November 2014 Available online 15 November 2014 Keywords: Fabrication Enzyme biosensor Nonwoven Photolithography Hydrogen peroxide Colorimetric detection a b s t r a c t This study focuses on the fabrication of a novel, flexible and disposable textile based biosensing plat- form by the use of an absorbent microfibrous nonwoven substrate as the base material. This platform was fabricated via photolithography technique. Physical barriers were designed using a hydrophobic photo-resist polymer which defined the liquid penetration pathways on the fabric surface. A good hydrophilic/hydrophobic contrast of the fabricated patterns on the fabric and a well-controlled liquid cap- illary penetration was achieved in the patterns. The potential of the system was tested by constructing an enzyme biosensor based on colorimetric detection of hydrogen peroxide. To obtain a more enhanced and reproducible signal, the reservoirs were modified with gelatin and a linear working range of 0.1–0.6 M H 2 O 2 was obtained. The system could work on temperatures as high as 50 ◦ C without any loss in the signal and in a pH range of 3.0–7.0. This bio-sensing platform may later be combined by H 2 O 2 producing oxidases such as glucose oxidase, lactate oxidase, etc. and used for the rapid detection of various kinds of important analytes. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Microfluidic analytical devices have been successfully used in the area of health related diagnosis especially in developing countries. They possess advantages of being inexpensive, easy to use, lightweight and low cost [1,2]. These devices are capable of detecting very small molecules such as glucose, lactose, alcohol, cholesterol, uric acid, antibody and antigen [3,4]. For their pro- duction, different fabrication techniques such as photolithography, inkjet printing, wax patterning and plasma treatment of hydropho- bic paper have been used [5]. Etching or molding patterns into glass, silicon, PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane), PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)), SU-8 (an epoxy-based negative photoresist) or other polymers or plastics have been traditionally applied for the ∗ Corresponding author at: Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Textile Tech- nologies and Design, Department of Textile Engineering, Gumussuyu Campus, Inonu Cad., No. 65, Gumussuyu 34437, Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey. Tel.: +90 532 6435512; fax: +90 212 251 88 29. E-mail address: bkayaoglu@itu.edu.tr (B. Karagüzel Kayao˘ glu). 1 First authorship is equally shared by S. Önder. fabrication of microfluidic devices. Alternatively their paper-based counterparts have been developed since they combine some of the capabilities of conventional microfluidic devices with the simplicity of diagnostic strip tests [6–10]. Whitesides and co-workers were the first to propose patterned paper as a paper-based microfluidic diagnostic platform [6]. Several methods related to fabrication of paper-based diagnostic devices for clinical assays have been reported. Martinez and co-workers [11,12] fabricated physical barriers by photolithography using a hydrophobic photo-resist polymer which defined the liquid pen- etration pathways on the paper surface. Transportation of liquid sample to multiple detection zones along the defined pathways could be achieved on the paper surface and multiple analytes could be detected simultaneously [11,12]. Photolithography was also used by Dungchai et al. in the design of a paper-based microflu- idic device. In the detection zones of the device, multiple indicators were used for the analysis of different concentrations of an analyte [13]. The same group used photolithography technique to create microfluidic channels on the surface of filter paper and electrodes were fabricated using screen-printing technology. The utility of the microfluidic device was then demonstrated with the electrochem- ical detection of glucose, lactate and uric acid in biological samples http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2014.11.042 0925-4005/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.