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Graphene-based field-effect transistors integrated with microfluidic chip for real-time pH monitoring of seawater

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Abstract

Seawater pH is an important parameter in marine and environmental researches, and it demands sensitive, portable, rapid and real-time sensing pH sensors. Here, we propose a graphene field-effect transistor (Gr-FET)-based pH sensor on flexible polyimide (PI) substrate integrated with microfluidic chip for real-time seawater pH detection. The monolayer graphene was grown by chemical vapor deposition, and transferred onto PI substrate to form transistor. The formed Gr-FET integrated with microfluidic channel forming the pH sensing chip, which is 2 × 3 cm2 in size, and 2 mm in thickness. Gr-FET-based pH sensor on PI substrate presents sensitivity of 23.98 mV/pH and 8.07 mV/pH in 1 × PBS and seawater solutions, respectively, and realizes pH detection in 1 min. The different ion type and concentration in the seawater solution could be contributed to the sensitivity reduction of the sensors in seawater. Real-time pH detection results of local fresh seawater show the fluctuation within 3% comparison with commercial pH sensor. The proposed Gr-FET-based pH sensor is economic, portable, fast and promising to realize real-time pH detection.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Plan of China (Grant No. 2019YFC1407800), Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scientist of Shandong Province (Grant No. JQ201814), the Key Research Plan of Shandong Province (2017GGX10106) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Equipment for Biological Diagnosis and Therapy in Universities of Shandong. We would like to thank Haiyan Yu, Xiaomin Zhao, Sen Wang and Yuyu Guo from State Key laboratory of Microbial Technology of Shandong University for help and guidance in material characterization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Science and Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Jianwei Gao, Yanhao Wang, Yingkuan Han, Yakun Gao, Chao Wang, Lin Han & Yu Zhang

  2. School of Microelectronics, Shandong University, Jinan, 250010, China

    Yingkuan Han

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  1. Jianwei Gao
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Contributions

YZ and LH designed the study; JG carried out the experiments and wrote this manuscript; YW assisted in the completion of the experiment; YH conducted graphene nanosheets characterization; YG and CW made microfluidic chips.

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Correspondence to Yu Zhang.

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Gao, J., Wang, Y., Han, Y. et al. Graphene-based field-effect transistors integrated with microfluidic chip for real-time pH monitoring of seawater. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 15372–15380 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-04101-3

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