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A Low-Cost Titanium Suboxide pH Sensor with Competitive Operational Lifetime Assessed with Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A Low-Cost Titanium Suboxide pH Sensor with Competitive Operational Lifetime Assessed with Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

Kyriakos Almpanidis, Apostolos Panagiotopoulos, George Kakavelakis, Leslie Askew, Xiaoqian Pu, Dimitar Ivanov Kutsarov, Steven Hinder, Ravi Silva and Vlad Stolojan
Journal of Materials Chemistry B: Materials for biology and medicine, Vol.Accepted Manuscripts(Accepted Manuscripts)
11/06/2026

Abstract

pH sensors Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Smart Bandages Wound Monitoring Transition Metal Oxides

 Smart Bandages are an emerging field of wearable electronics. Biosensors provide a medium of communication between the wound site’s chemical status and the clinicians. The pH is a critical biomarker, as it is a suitable indicator for bacterial infection. In this paper, a low-cost Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS)-based Titanium Suboxide (TiOx) pH sensor with Silver (Ag) electrodes is presented. A sensitivity of -27.8 Ω/pH is achieved in the pH 4-8 region of interest related to wound infection. The measured pH sensitivity, after a one-month stability study, is lost only 2.25% for the TiOx sensor - reaching the state-of-the-art - compared to the Polyaniline (PANI)  sensor, which lost 10% of its pH sensitivity. To further assess stability, we evaluated sensor behaviour at the edge pH values. The TiOx sensor exhibits impedance increases of 5.5% and 4% at pH 4 and 8, respectively, which are approximately half of those reported for PANI devices (10% and 9% at pH 4 and 8, respectively). The stability experiments highlighted TiOx’s chemical stability relative to PANI in both acidic and alkaline media. Further, the sensitivity of the TiOx sensors is recovered to 95.7% after 200℃ thermal annealing, thereby recalibrating the sensors and prolonging their lifetime whilst reducing waste. To better understand the sensing and degradation mechanisms, a model-free method is employed for both TiOx and PANI pH sensors. The reason is to demonstrate that pH sensitivity is related to the film surface (given the circuit complexity of the equivalent models in 2-electrode systems). This work is an important step for a potential translation to real-world wound monitoring, where long-term stability and low cost are critical for an accurate and efficient biomarker detection and sustainable well-being.

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Author's Accepted Manuscript Embargo until publication date CC BY V4.0
url
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TB02697KView
Published (Version of record) Open CC BY V4.0

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