Glucose monitors and so many other instruments would be available far cheaper in near future. University of Florida students have demonstrated an innovative way to use the airbrush to make ‘microelectrodes’.

The “airbrush” is a very popular tool for tattoo-makers and screen-printing for T-shirts. This unexpected technological application of airbrush has been discovered by a group of engineering students at the University of Florida who used to make paper aircrafts as their hobby.

Microelectrodes are the typical tiny conductors and are currently being used in a variety of medical and consumer research products. Using airbrush, as a microelectrode will be far simpler compared to the standard electrodes and this would be specifically beneficial for smaller projects where limited production of microelectrodes becomes a problem.
“The idea was to try to find something cheap and quick, that we could do in our own lab without much expense,” said one of the students, Corey Walker. He is member of a group of four engineering students working on this project. Along with pursuing his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering at the University of California Corey Walker are also the lead researcher and author of this group. Details of this new discovery are now scheduled to be published in the forthcoming online edition of the journal “Electro analysis”.
Microelectrodes are basically fingernail-sized devices with extremely high sensitivity. Because of this property, microelectrodes are generally used in several instruments that required high sensitive readings like the glucose monitors for diabetic patients.
Experiments are also underway with the use of microelectrodes in the development of “Lab on Chip” project that will facilitate identification of various substances in the blood, air and other matters.
Microelectrodes are extensively used in the screen-printing industry. It is a typical technique that was originally taken from visual arts. While working developing some innovation in this technique, students faced problems with creating a hydrogen sensor, as they did not have one. One of the students who had a hobby of making paper airplanes was using airbrushes for model airplanes. On his advice, the group tries airbrush as a microelectrode. Trials ad tests finally resulted in to fully developed airbrushed electrodes working as sensors.
T typical screen-printing machine is available in the market bears a cost of around $10,000. An airbrush on the other hand, costs hardly $200. This huge difference in costs will definitely make the airbrush more useful for small and custom projects with beneficial approach. Students are hopeful that in future further research may also prove this technique as viable for big projects as well.

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