High stability resistive switching mechanism of a screen-printed electrode based on BOBZBT(2) organic pentamer for creatinine detection

The resistive switching (RS) mechanism is resulted from the formation and dissolution of a conductive filament due to the electrochemical redox-reactions and can be identified with a pinched hysteresis loop on the I–V characteristic curve. In this work, the RS behaviour was demonstrated using a screen-printed electrode (SPE) and was utilized for creatinine sensing application. The working electrode (WE) of the SPE has been modified with a novel small organic molecule, 1,4-bis[2-(5-thiophene-2-yl)-1-benzothiopene]-2,5-dioctyloxybenzene (BOBzBT(2)). Its stability at room temperature and the presence of thiophene monomers were exploited to facilitate the cation transport and thus, affecting the high resistive state (HRS) and low resistive state (LRS) of the electrochemical cell. The sensor works based on the interference imposed by the interaction between the creatinine molecule and the radical cation of BOBzBT(2) to the conductive filament during the Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) measurement. Different concentrations of BOBzBT(2) dilution were evaluated using various concentrations of non-clinical creatinine samples to identify the optimised setup of the sensor. Enhanced sensitivity of the sensor was observed at a high concentration of BOBzBT(2) over creatinine concentration between 0.4 and 1.6 mg dL(−1)—corresponding to the normal range of a healthy individual.