Craig E Banks

Manchester Metropolitan University | MMU · Department of Natural Sciences

Ciprofloxacin is a third-generation synthetic fluoroquinolone antibacterial drug which has been used as a broad-spectrum antibiotic to treat a number of bacterial infections. An excessive use or an overdose of ciprofloxacin can result in several adverse effects to humans and therefore its measurement is critical. Electroanalytical based sensors for...

A highly microporous Cu-BTC (denoted as HKUST-1) was synthesized using a simple and rapid synthesis room-temperature method. The as-prepared HKUST-1 obtained at room temperature for 10 min exhibited a very high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of 1875 m2/g, pore volume of 0.789 cm3/g, and average micropore size of 7.84 Å. Based on this product,...

Carbendazim is a broad-spectrum systemic fungicide that is used to control various fungal diseases in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. Carbendazim is also used in post-harvest applications to prevent fungal growth on fruits and vegetables during storage and transportation. Carbendazim is regulated in many countries and banned in others, thu...

Mixing of graphite and carbon black (CB) alongside recycled poly(lactic acid) and castor oil to create an electrically conductive additive manufacturing filament without the use of solvents is reported herein. The additively manufactured electrodes (AMEs) were electrochemically benchmarked against a commercial conductive filament and a bespoke fila...

Sepsis, an infectious disease affecting millions of people’s health worldwide each year, calls for urgent attention to an improvement of analytical devices. Chemiluminescence immunoassay is a typical diagnostic method utilized to assess the risk development of sepsis. However, due to its high-cost, delayed, and complicated procedure, the practical...

Ni-doped alumina nanoflakes are a potent sensing material for SO 3 gas at 20-90 1C with moderate recovery. Herein, an economical synthesis of undoped and doped alumina for the experimental detection of SO 3 target gas is reported. The Ni-doping results in an efficient fast response to all tested concentrations of the target gas and also showed good...

Honey samples have been widely evaluated regarding the presence of degradation products as an index quality control, for example, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in the presence of carbohydrates. The monitoring of HMF strategy can be a challenge; however, catalyst-based electroanalytical approaches can overcome it. This work aims the use of propolis to...

Recycling used mixed material additively manufactured electroanalytical sensors into new 3D-printing filaments (both conductive and non-conductive) for the production of new sensors is reported herein. Additively manufactured (3D-printed) sensing platforms were transformed into a non-conductive filament for fused filament fabrication through four d...

Glucose biosensors play an extremely important role in health care systems worldwide. Therefore, the field continues to attract significant attention leading to the development of innovative technologies. Due to their characteristics, Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) represent a promising alternative to commercial enzymatic sensors. In this wo...

One of the principal raw ingredients used in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, nuclear fuel, and semiconductors is hydroxylamine, a mutagenic and carcinogenic substance, ranking high on the list of environmental contaminants. Electrochemical methods for monitoring hydroxylamine have the advantage of being portable, quick, affordable, simple, se...

With the increase in antimicrobial resistance, there is an urgent need to find new antimicrobials. Four particulate antimicrobial compounds, graphite (G), graphene oxide (GO), silver–graphene oxide (Ag-GO) and zinc oxide–graphene oxide (ZnO-GO) were tested against Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aure...

In the present work, chitosan-coated nickel nanoparticles (CS-Ni) were successfully prepared onto screen-printed electrode (SPE) by electrodeposition method with the assistance of an anionic surfactant of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) for the individual and simultaneous sensing of 4-aminophenol (4-AP) and paracetamol (PA). The as-prepared sensor was...

The development and increase in the number of crops recently have led to the requirement for greater efficiency in world food production, and greater consumption of pesticides. In this context, the widespread use of pesticides has affected the decrease in the population of pollinating insects, as well as causing food contamination. Therefore, simpl...

The use of pesticides is one of the primary means of protecting crops. However, this class of compounds can be highly toxic to the environment and humans. In this aspect, developing analytical devices for monitoring pesticides such as carbendazim in food sources is of paramount importance. Thus, the present work presents the application of a paper-...

This is the first report that describes the loading of phyto-drugs naringenin (NAR) and baicalein (BAC) in different Pluronics F108, F127 and P84 using solvent evaporationmethod (S.Ev.M) and Direct dissolution method (D.D.M.). Pluronic P84 micelles were able to encapsulatesignificantly higher amount of both phyto-drugs as compared to other Pluronic...

Lysozyme (LYZ) is a small cationic protein which is widely used for medical treatment and in the food industry to act as an anti-bacterial agent; however, it can trigger allergic reactions. In this study, high-affinity molecularly imprinted nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) were synthesized for LYZ using a solid-phase approach. The produced nanoMIPs were el...

Accurate and fast on-site detection of harmful microorganisms in food products is a key preventive step to avoid food-borne illness and product recall. In this study, screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) were functionalized via a facile strategy with surface imprinted polymers (SIPs). The SIP-coated SPEs were used in combination with the heat transfer...

This manuscript presents the design and facile production of screen-printed arrays (SPAs) for the internally validated determination of raised levels of serum procalcitonin (PCT). The screen-printing methodology produced SPAs with six individual working electrodes that exhibit an inter-array reproducibility of 3.64% and 5.51% for the electrochemica...

The recycling of post-industrial waste poly(lactic acid) (PI-PLA) from coffee machine pods into electroanalytical sensors for the detection of caffeine in real tea and coffee samples is reported herein. The PI-PLA is transformed into both nonconductive and conductive filaments to produce full electroanalytical cells, including additively manufactur...

L-DOPA (levodopa) is a therapeutic agent which is the most effective medication for treating Parkinson's disease, but it needs dose optimization, and therefore its analytical determination is required. Laboratory analytical instruments can be routinely used to measure L-DOPA but are not always available in clinical settings and traditional research...

The demand for new devices that enable the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) at a relatively low cost and that are fast and feasible to be used as point-of-care is required overtime on a large scale. In this sense, the use of sustainable materials, for example, the bio-based poly (ethylene terephthalate) (Bio...

Zero-emission hydrogen and oxygen production are critical for the UK to reach net-zero greenhouse gasses by 2050. Electrochemical techniques such as water splitting (electrolysis) coupled with renewables energy can provide a unique approach to achieving zero emissions. Many studies exploring electrocatalysts need to “electrically wire” to their mat...

The production of electrically conductive additive manufacturing feedstock from recycled poly(lactic acid) (rPLA), carbon black (CB), and bio-based plasticiser castor oil is reported herein. The filament was used to print...

Recycling spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is crucial to address environmental and global sustainability issues. Wet chemical extraction of valuable metals is currently the most practical disposal technology, but it is...

Additive manufacturing (3D-printing) is a rapidly emerging technology grouped under the heading of Industry 4.0 and revolutionises the way products are created. One emerging area is textiles (apparel) where additive manufacturing allows the rapid fabrication of products that are not easily produced using traditional manufacturing approaches. In thi...

Cadaverine is a biomolecule of major healthcare importance in periodontal disease; however, current detection methods remain inefficient. The development of an enzyme biosensor for the detection of cadaverine may provide a cheap, rapid, point-of-care alternative to traditional measurement techniques. This work developed a screen-printed biosensor (...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many social and economic problems in Hispanic America, a region with fragile health and economic systems and many inequalities. The pandemic has negatively influenced various aspects of life and led to changes in various habits and behaviours, including consumption. However, the extent to which the pandemic has infl...

Changing the connection length of an additively manufactured electrode (AME) has a significant impact on the electrochemical and electroanalytical response of the system. In the literature, many electrochemical platforms have been produced using additive manufacturing with great variations in how the AME itself is described. It is seen that when me...

The first recycled conductive poly(lactic acid) (PLA) filament derived from post‐industrial waste sources for additive manufacturing (AM) is reported herein, presenting a paradigm shift in plastic waste recycling, AM filament production, and AM energy storage architectures. Filaments utilizing a base of recycled PLA, carbon black (CB) as a conducti...

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a powerful technique for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. This review uses a systematic approach to examine how electrodes are tailored for use in EIS-based applications, describing the chemistries involved in sensor design, and discusses trends in the use of bio-based and non-bio-based ele...

In this work, the electrochemical response of different morphologies (shapes) and dimensions of additively manufactured (3D-printing) carbon black (CB)/poly-lactic acid (PLA) electrodes are reported. The working electrodes (WE) are printed using standard non-conductive PLA based filament for the housing and commercial Protopasta (carbon black/PLA)...

In the present work, we report an innovative approach for immunosensors construction. The experimental strategy is based on the anchoring of biological material at screen-printed carbon electrode (SPE) modified with electrodeposited Graphene Quantum Dots (GQD) and polyhydroxybutyric acid (PHB). It was used as functional substract basis for the reco...

This manuscript details the first report of a complete additively manufactured rotating disk electrode setup, highlighting how high-performing equipment can be designed and produced rapidly using additive manufacturing without compromising on performance. The additively manufactured rotating disk electrode system was printed using a predominantly a...

A portable test to rapidly determine levels of levodopa, the drug used to treat Parkinson's disease, can improve clinical management of the disease. In this study, screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) were modified with polymers to facilitate the electrochemical detection of levodopa. Cyclic voltammetry was used to deposit a thin layer of polyaniline o...

A portable test to rapidly determine levels of levodopa, the drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease, can improve clinical management of the disease. In this study, screen-printed electrodes were modified with polymers to facilitate the electrochemical detection of levodopa. Cyclic voltammetry was used to deposit a thin layer of polyaniline on the e...

Electrochemical stripping analysis (ESA) is a trace electroanalytical technique for the determination of metal cations, inorganic ions, organic compounds and biomolecules. It is based on a pre-concentration step of the target analyte(s), or a compound of the target, on a suitable working electrode. This is followed by a stripping step of the accumu...

Sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) have rapidly risen to the forefront of energy storage systems as a promising supplementary for Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). Na3V2(PO4)2F3 (NVPF) as a common cathode of SIBs, features the merits of high operating voltage, small volume change and favorable specific energy density. However, it suffers from poor cycling sta...

Additive Manufacturing (AM), otherwise known as 3D printing, is becoming increasingly popular in the field of electrochemistry since it allows affordable, on-demand production of bespoke devices. Provided a suitably conductive polymer composite material is used, this can include working electrodes. However, while a number of publications have shown...

Additive manufacturing, or three-dimensional (3D) printing, offers a unique solution for fabricating complex geometries with high tolerances. Currently, many commercial additive manufacturing machines focus on the printing of polymers with limited functionalities. However, conductive polymers (CPs) can be processed to enable the additive manufactur...

The use of biological components in the development of new methods of analysis and point-of-care (POC) devices is an ever-expanding theme in analytical chemistry research, due to the immense potential for early diagnosis of diseases and monitoring of biomarkers. In the present work, the evaluation of an electrochemical microfluidic device based on...

Molecular recognition has been described as the “ultimate” form of sensing and plays a fundamental role in biological processes. There is a move towards biomimetic recognition elements to overcome inherent problems of natural receptors such as limited stability, high-cost, and variation in response. In recent years, several alternatives have emerge...

Chromium exerts serious damage to human beings and to aquatic life and is one of the most common environmental contaminant and possess toxicity when present above threshold limits. In comparison with the traditional quantification methods such as atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, UV-Vis or high-perf...

Manganese is an essential nutrient of the human body but also toxic at elevated levels with symptoms of neurotoxicity reported, therefore its analytical determination is required. Manganese (II) is ingested primarily through food and drinking water so its routine monitoring in such samples is essential. While laboratory based analytical instrumenta...

A low-cost, scalable and reproducible approach for the mass production of screen-printed electrode (SPE) platforms that have varying percentage mass incorporations of 2D hexagonal boron nitride (2D-hBN) (2D-hBN/SPEs) is demonstrated herein. These novel 2D-hBN/SPEs are explored as a potential metal-free electrocatalysts towards oxygen reduction reac...

Rapid antigen tests are currently used for population screening of COVID-19. However, they lack sensitivity and utilize antibodies as receptors, which can only function in narrow temperature and pH ranges. Consequently, molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) are synthetized with a fast (2 h) and scalable process using merely a tiny...

The paper presents the results of studies on the sorption leaching of gold-containing ore of the Vasilkovskoye deposit. Kinetic dependences of the sorption of gold and associated metals from cyanide-alkali solutions under different physical and chemical factors were obtained. It was found that gold on the AM-2B resin sorbed at a higher rate than, f...

Determination of specific cardiac biomarkers (CBs) during the diagnosis and management of adverse cardiovascular events such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has become commonplace in emergency department (ED), cardiology and many other ward settings. Cardiac troponins (cTnT and cTnI) and natriuretic peptides (BNP and NT-pro-BNP) are the prefer...

Biomarkers play an important and irrefutable role in the screening, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of a wide variety of human diseases. As these biomarkers inevitably feature more and more prominently in the patient care pathway, there is a growing need for technologies that can provide rapid, accurate and sensitive test results at low cost. I...

Water-insoluble nickel hexacyanoferrate Ni3[Fe(CN)6]2.nH2O (NiHCF) nanoparticles were synthesized via a facile precipitation method in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and sodium citrate (SC). Large-scale production of cubic NiHCF crystals with an average diameter of 35 nm and a specific surface area (SBET) of 452.9 m²/g was shown to be p...

Redesigning 3D-printed flow cells is reported used for heat transfer based detection of biomolecules from a flow-through system to an addition-type measurement cell. The aim of this study is to assess the performance of this new measurement design and critically analyse the influence of material properties and 3D printing approach on thermal analys...

Serum creatinine concentration is an important clinical measure of kidney function. However, standard methods of detection, such as the Jaffe method or enzymatic assays, suffer several disadvantages, including non-specificity and procedural complexity, or high cost, respectively. In this work, we propose the use of nano-molecularly imprinted polyme...

Carbon nanomaterials have gained significant interest over recent years in the field of electrochemistry, and they may be limited in their use due to issues with their difficulty in dispersion. Enzymes are prime components for detecting biological molecules and enabling electrochemical interactions, but they may also enhance multiwalled carbon nano...

An ultrahigh photosensitive diode was developed using a Cu-doped CeO 2 thin film through spray pyrolysis processing, which has made a unique contribution in the field of optoelectronic device fabrication process.