Martina Aurora Costa Angeli

• Doctor of Engineering
• Post-doc research-fellow at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Advancements in sensor technologies capable of measuring key biomarkers can greatly enhance medical diagnostics and health monitoring, facilitating more effective diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. While there are numerous biomarkers of interest, gaseous ammonia (NH3) stands out due to its significance as an indicator of organ function (e.g., li...

In this work, we developed flexible polymer-based memristive-like devices specifically designed for biosensing applications. The fabricated devices consist of two gold electrodes connected by a biocompatible polymeric resistive layer made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), on flexib...

Cytokines are key human health biomarkers, whose levels in sweat significantly correlate with their concentrations in blood, facilitating thus their minimally-invasive monitoring via wearable devices. Nevertheless, their physiological concentrations in sweat down to pM, highlight the need for extremely sensitive detection techniques, with electroch...

Memristive devices offer a promising approach for biosensing due to their high sensitivity. In two-terminal planar devices, the movement of charged species in the semiconductor channel creates a voltage gap, which can be exploited for sensing. In this study, we developed flexible polymer-based memristive devices with gold electrodes connected by a...

The dissemination of sensors is key to realizing a sustainable, ‘intelligent’ world, where everyday objects and environments are equipped with sensing capabilities to advance the sustainability and quality of our lives—e.g. via smart homes, smart cities, smart healthcare, smart logistics, Industry 4.0, and precision agriculture. The realization of...

The detection of cytokines, key proteins involved in the immune system signaling, is of extreme importance for health monitoring. Among the various cytokines, interleukin-6 (IL-6), is particularly interesting to monitor, also considering that sweat IL-6 levels show a significant correlation with blood levels, in the range of pg/mL. Despite its impo...

Nanoplastics (NPs) are among the major and most dangerous contaminants in the environment, because of their small size and active surface, which allow them to interact with a variety of other molecules. Current methods used for the detection of NPs rely on bulky and expensive techniques. In this work we propose a novel, fast, and easy-to-use sensor...

In the field of smart agriculture, the on-site assessment of fruit quality is gaining an increased attention, due to the possibility it offers to precisely and rapidly evaluate fruit quality, enabling real-time decision making while reducing waste and ensuring a high-quality final produce. In this context, the extreme portability and flexibility of...

In this work, we present a novel approach for the fabrication of a fully printed poly(3,4 ethyldioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfunate) (PEDOT:PSS)-based organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) on textile substrates, that serves as a selective cation sensor, thanks to the combination of both OECT and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) resp...

Cytokines are signaling proteins present in human fluids. Their detection is crucial in understanding immune system activity and supporting the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases such as sepsis, diabetes, and cancers. Nevertheless, investigating emporal profiles of these crucial biomarkers still relies on blood sampling (potentially uncomfortable...

In vitro simulators of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract are remarkable technological platforms for studying the impact of food on the gut microbiota, enabling continuous and real-time monitoring of key biomarkers. However, comprehensive real-time monitoring of gaseous biomarkers in these systems is required with a cost-effective approach, whic...

Carbon nanotubes are a promising sensing material for bio-transduction devices, due to their unique electrical properties, nanosize, bio-compatibility, and their simple low-cost processability. In this contribution, we present two classes of devices (i.e., electrolyte-gated field-effect transistor-based sensors and gas sensors) fabricated by facile...

Electrolyte-gated carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (EG-CNTFETs) are a promising bio-sensing platform, but the instability of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), e.g., high leakage current and hysteresis, remains a major limitation. In this paper, we demonstrate that incorporating a lipophilic membrane on the semiconducting channel reduces the EG-CNTFE...

In this work, we present the research carried out within the STEX (“Smart TEXtiles for monitoring muscle activity”) project, aimed at the development of wearable non-invasive sensors for real-time monitoring of muscle activity. The project's activities performed involved the design, fabrication, characterization and validation of two different sens...

In-vitro simulators of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract are remarkable technological platforms for studying the impact of food on the gut microbiota, enabling continuous and real-time monitoring of key biomarkers. In these systems, comprehensive real-time monitoring of gaseous biomarkers is required with a cost-effective approach, which has be...

Even though a plethora of printing technologies are currently available and their potential for the fabrication of low-cost and flexible sensors has been widely investigated, systematically based, and statistically sustained comparative studies are missing in the literature. In this work, we compare screen, inkjet, and dispense printing for the fab...

Electrolyte-gated field-effect transistors (EG-FETs) are widely used in the growing field of biochemical sensing applications, due to their manifold advantages, such as large specific capacitance, low operating voltage, and intrinsic signal amplification. In this work, carbon nanotube EG-FET (EG-CNTFET)-based sensors for ammonium (NH4+) detection a...

In this work, gas sensors using laser-reduced graphene oxide (LrGO) as sensitive layer have been fabricated and studied. The laser-synthetized material were structurally and electrically characterized by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and the four-point contact method. The gas...

Triboelectric Nanogenerator Triboelectric nanogenerator is an innovative double-layer ridged structure with exceptional capabilities for powering and integrating low-energy electronics seamlessly into various wearable and healthcare devices, as demonstrated by Raheel Riaz, Luisa Petti, and co-workers in article 2202106. Besides efficiently generati...

The research interest towards wearable sensing devices has rapidly increased in recent years, due to the importance that personalized healthcare monitoring has gained in our everyday life. In this context, electrolyte-gated field-effect transistors (EG-FETs) for sensing applications are receiving increasing attention, owing to their intrinsic signa...

Printing technologies have emerged as a viable method for the fabrication of various electronic components, including sensors, actuators, energy harvesters, thin‐film transistors and circuits, as well as antennas. However, printing processes have limitations in terms of surface roughness and thickness. Printing conductive structures on novel substr...

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have demonstrated great promise especially for the realization of self‐powered biomedical sensors. Nevertheless, developing TENG sensors able to detect the broad range of biomechanical movements experienced on the human body is still a challenge. Herein, a unique ridge‐structured device sensitive to wide range o...

CNTs based chemiresistive gas sensors are known to not fully recover to the baseline after gas exposure. This is why often heat is applied to thermally activate the sensor and improve the gas desorption process occurring at the surface. In this paper, we combine single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) with conjugated polymers (CPs) i.e., Poly(3-hexylthiophene)...

In this paper, we present a custom-designed and flexible readout circuitry for the characterization of flexible and planar electrolyte-gated carbon nanotube field-effect transistor-based biosensors for ammonium detection in sweat. We employed spray-deposited semiconducting carbon nanotubes as active material, and functionalized the devices with pre...

The recent interest in flexible and stretchable strain sensors reflects their potential applications in various fields, including healthcare monitoring, soft robotics, and electronic skins. In addition to high stretchability and excellent sensing properties, self-healability is also a highly desirable property of stretchable strain sensors as it al...

Solid-state chemiresistive gas sensors have attracted a lot of researchers’ attention during the last half-century thanks to their ability to detect different gases with high sensitivity, low power consumption, low cost, and high portability. Among the most promising sensitive materials, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted a lot of interest due...

In this work, the comparison between two different gate electrode layouts (square-shaped and U-shaped, designed with the same area) for flexible and planar electrolyte-gated field-effect transistor-based sensors for ammonium detection is reported. Spray-deposited semiconducting carbon nanotubes were employed as active material, while the functional...

In this work, a flexible and planar electrolyte-gated carbon nanotube field-effect transistor-based sensor for ammonium detection is reported. The active layer was manufactured by means of a spray-deposited semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) thin film. The device was functionalized with an ion-selective membrane, based on the nona...

Aptamers are chemically synthesized single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides nowadays widely used in sensors and nanoscale devices as highly sensitive biorecognition elements. With proper design, aptamers are able to bind to a specific target molecule with high selectivity. To date, the systematic evolution of ligand by exponential enrichment (S...

Over the past few years, wearable sensors have become more and more widespread, thanks to the possibility to perform non-invasive and real-time monitoring of various physiological parameters (e.g., heart rate, temperature, blood pressure). One of the most interesting source of information is the sweat, being rich of metabolites, proteins, ions, etc...

Untethered microswimmers have been recently proposed as possible candidates for a wealth of biomedical and environmental applications. In view of their translation from laboratory experimentation to clinical practice, it is fundamental to identify low-cost, scalable and flexible manufacturing approaches. The production method explored in the presen...

Abstract Here we propose the use of a diode-based sensor fabricated on a glass substrate coated with an ITO electrode (anode) with a spin-coated semiconducting polymer layer (e.g., Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), PCBM) and aluminum counter electrodes (cathode) with a porous structure created by colloidal photolithography. Ammonia molecules can diffu...

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) have proved promising features for flexible and lightweight electronics. To achieve technological maturity for commercial and industrial applications, their stability under extreme environmental conditions is highly required. The combined effects of temperature (T) f...

Electrochemical biosensors are widely investigated as they represent attractive analytical tools for detection of a broad range of bio-molecules, thanks to their simplicity, high sensitivity and short response time. Especially, biosensors employing an electrolyte-gated field-effect transistors (EG-FETs) as electrochemical transduction element have...

In this work, we present a novel, sensitive, easy-to-fabricate, flexible amperometric sensor constituted by screen-printed silver (Ag) electrodes functionalized with a copper (Cu) film electrodeposited on top of a spray coated network of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The Cu/SWCNTs/Ag electrode showed excellent catalytic activity towards...

Nowadays, there is a high demand for sensitive and selective real-time analytical methods suitable for a wide range of applications, from personalized tele-medicine, drug discovery, food safety, and quality control, to defense, security, as well as environmental monitoring. Biosensors are analytical devices able to detect biochemical analytes (e.g....

Nitrate (NO3–) contamination is becoming a major concern due to the negative effects of an excessive NO3– presence in water which can have detrimental effects on human health. Sensitive, real-time, low-cost, and portable measurement systems able to detect extremely low concentrations of NO3– in water are thus becoming extremely important. In this w...

This poster shows my Ph.D. research focus at a glance!!! The main aim is to develop a chemiresistive single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) based gas sensor to measure the ammonia (NH3) produced in the bioreactors of the Simulator of the Human Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME) at the Micro4Food lab. Here are reported the main results of the developed re...

In this work, Schottky diodes based on amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) were fabricated on cellulose microfiber paper substrate. Silver lines used as the Schottky barrier were printed, in parallel to thermally evaporated Cr/Au ohmic contact, using a dispense printer. The morphological and electrical characteristics of the devices are pres...

Since its first discovery in 2014, laser-induced graphene (LIG) has gained increasingly attention as a simple and low-cost alternative to printing techniques, which instead require additional materials such as functional ink or adhesive layers. While there are several works on LIG supercapacitors, gas sensors, and triboelectric generators, this met...

In this work, we demonstrate the advantages and the potentials of dispense printing (V-One, Voltera) for the realization of conductive contacts of flexible electronics. Printing parameters were optimized for Ag inks on different substrates (PCB, Si/SiO2 and polyimide), leading to straight homogeneous printed lines with minimum feature size of...

Soft robots, made of deformable and stretchable materials, have been exploited and investigated as promising technologies for a wide range of applications, from human assistance to rehabilitation. In this context, the possibility to integrate conformable, flexible and stretchable sensors able to detect external stimuli allows a further increase of...

Inkjet printing is a promising low-cost fabrication technique capable of depositing functional materials with micrometer resolution, making this technique attractive for the fabrication of deformable sensors. Despite all the possible promising applications, no examples of inkjet-printed strain sensors array able to map substrate surface deformation...

Controlled SU-8 inkjet printing constitutes an attractive approach to realize electronic microstructures, MEMS, microfluidic devices or transducers. Indeed, inkjet printing is the most promising low-cost manufacturing process capable of depositing functional materials with high resolution, making this technique attractive for micrometric patterning...

Inkjet printing is a promising technology providing cost-effective method for processing various materials on deformable substrates. In this work, linear and serpentine inkjet printed interconnects on two different substrates were fabricated and electromechanically characterized. A particular attention was given to the optimization of the process p...

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world (8.5 % of the world population [1]) and current projections estimate an increase in prevalence over the coming years, especially in developing countries [2]. The management of diabetes mellitus requires frequent monitoring of blood glucose levels, using a small blood sample t...