Large-scale manufacturing of functional single-atom ink for convenient glucose sensing

Printing techniques hold great potential in the manufacture of electronics such as sensors,micro-supercapacitors,and flexible electronics.However,developing large-scale functional conductive inks with appropriate rheological properties and active components still remains a challenge.Herein,through optimizing the formulations of ink,iron single sites supported N-doped carbon black(Fe_(1)-NC)inks can serve as both conductive electrodes and high-reactive catalysts to realize convenient glucose detection,which pronouncedly reduces the dosage of enzyme and simplifies the sensors preparation.In detail,utilizing in-situ pyrolysis method,Fe_(1)-NC single-atom catalysts(SACs)are prepared in bulk(dekagram-level).The batched Fe_(1)-NC SACs materials can be uniformly mixed with modulated ink to realize the screen printing with high resolution and uniformity.Also,the whole scalable preparation and ink-functional process can be extended to various metals(including Co,Ni,Cu,and Mn).The introduction of highly active Fe_(1)-NC sites reduces the amount of enzyme used in glucose detection by at least 50%,contributing to the cost reduction of sensors.The strategy in harnessing the SACs onto the carbon inks thus provides a broad prospect for the low-cost and large-scale printing of sensitive sensing devices.