The demand for affordable, scalable, and environmentally sustainable chemical sensors has driven the exploration of new manufacturing pathways that combine performance with accessibility. Traditional microfabrication approaches, while precise, are often costly and resource-intensive, limiting their potential for widespread deployment in clinical, environmental, and forensic monitoring. In this presentation, we discuss sustainable pathways in low-cost sensor manufacturing, with a focus on three emerging trends: paper-based platforms, laser-induced patterning, and additive manufacturing via 3D-printing. Paper provides a renewable and biodegradable substrate with unique fluidic properties, enabling disposable point-of-care devices. Laser technologies offer rapid, chemical-free, and maskless fabrication of conductive carbon and metal oxides directly onto diverse substrates, reducing waste and energy consumption. Meanwhile, 3D-printing introduces unprecedented design flexibility and scalability, supporting integration of microfluidics, electronics, and sensing elements in a single step. By highlighting recent advances from our group and others, this talk will illustrate how these approaches can converge to deliver high-performance sensors that are not only low-cost but also aligned with circular economy principles. These strategies point toward a new era of sustainable electrochemical sensing—where accessibility, performance, and environmental responsibility are simultaneously achieved.
Thiago R. L. C. Paixão is Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo (Brazil), where he leads the Laboratory of Electronic Tongues and Chemical Sensors. His research focuses on developing low-cost and scalable electrochemical sensors, laser-induced graphene, and 3D-printed devices for environmental, clinical, forensic, and food analysis. Over his career, he has secured multiple research grants from Brazilian agencies, served in leadership positions at CAPES, and supervised several graduate students. He is currently Associate Editor of Analytica Chimica Acta and serves as Scientific Advisor at FAPESP.
The demand for affordable, scalable, and environmentally sustainable chemical sensors has driven the exploration of new manufacturing pathways that combine performance with accessibility. Traditional microfabrication approaches, while precise, are often costly and resource-intensive, limiting their potential for widespread deployment in clinical, environmental, and forensic monitoring. In this presentation, we discuss sustainable pathways in low-cost sensor manufacturing, with a focus on three emerging trends: paper-based platforms, laser-induced patterning, and additive manufacturing via 3D-printing. Paper provides a renewable and biodegradable substrate with unique fluidic properties, enabling disposable point-of-care devices. Laser technologies offer rapid, chemical-free, and maskless fabrication of conductive carbon and metal oxides directly onto diverse substrates, reducing waste and energy consumption. Meanwhile, 3D-printing introduces unprecedented design flexibility and scalability, supporting integration of microfluidics, electronics, and sensing elements in a single step. By highlighting recent advances from our group and others, this talk will illustrate how these approaches can converge to deliver high-performance sensors that are not only low-cost but also aligned with circular economy principles. These strategies point toward a new era of sustainable electrochemical sensing—where accessibility, performance, and environmental responsibility are simultaneously achieved.
Thiago R. L. C. Paixão is Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo (Brazil), where he leads the Laboratory of Electronic Tongues and Chemical Sensors. His research focuses on developing low-cost and scalable electrochemical sensors, laser-induced graphene, and 3D-printed devices for environmental, clinical, forensic, and food analysis. Over his career, he has secured multiple research grants from Brazilian agencies, served in leadership positions at CAPES, and supervised several graduate students. He is currently Associate Editor of Analytica Chimica Acta and serves as Scientific Advisor at FAPESP.
