A wireless smartphone-based “tap-and-detect” formaldehyde sensor with disposable nano-palladium grafted laser-induced graphene (nanoPd@LIG) electrodes

We developed a fully integrated smart sensing device for on-site testing of food to detect trace formaldehyde (FA). A nano-palladium grafted laser-induced graphene (nanoPd@LIG) composite was synthesized by one-step laser irradiation of a Pd2+-chitosan-polyimide precursor. The composite was synthesized in the form of a three-electrode sensor on a polymer substrate. The electrochemical properties and morphology of the fabricated composite were characterized and the electrochemical kinetics of FA oxidation at the nanoPd@LIG electrode were investigated. The nanoPd@LIG electrode was combined with a smart electrochemical sensing (SES) device to determine FA electrochemically. The proposed SES device uses near field communication (NFC) to receive power and transfer data between a smartphone interface and a battery-free sensor. The proposed FA sensor exhibited a linear detection range from 0.01 to 4.0 mM, a limit of detection of 6.4 μM, good reproducibility (RSDs between 2.0 and 10.1%) and good anti-interference properties for FA detection. The proposed system was used to detect FA in real food samples and the results correlated well with the results from a commercial potentiostat and a spectrophotometric analysis.