3D-printed electrode an affordable sensor for sulfanilamide monitoring in breast milk, synthetic urine, and pharmaceutical formulation samples

This paper describes a simple and cost-effective method for manufacturing a 3D-printed electrode. This electrode presented a similar design to commercial electrodes, where a stereolithography printer was used to build the electrode body using an acrylic resin. The electroactive surface was filled by a 3D-pen using a carbon black integrated polylactic acid (CB/PLA) conductive filament. After a simple and fast (400 s) surface treatment, the 3D-printed CB/PLA electrode was combined with Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV) technique for sulfanilamide (SAA) determination. The developed electroanalytical method was applied to breast milk, synthetic urine, and otologic solution samples, showing excellent analytical performance with a detection limit of 12 nmol L-1, wide linear range from 1 to 39.2 mu mol L-1, and good precision (RSD = 1.8%, n = 10). In addition, the sensor provides fantastic selectivity towards other antibiotic classes, and when applied in spiked samples, recovery values between 93 and 108% were obtained, which demonstrated good accuracy as well as the absence of matrix effect. It is highlighted that no laborious sample preparation steps were required (simple dilution in supporting electrolyte). Thus, the proposed 3D-printed device proves to be a promising analytical tool for routine analysis.

Automated summary

This paper presents a simple and cost-effective method for manufacturing a 3D-printed electrode and demonstrates its application in sulfanilamide determination. The 3D-printed electrode shows excellent analytical performance and selectivity, making it suitable for the analysis of various samples such as breast milk, synthetic urine, and otologic solution.