IMEPRINT-Incorporation of Microencapsulated Enzymes into screen PRINTed carbon graphite inks

IMEPRINT-Incorporation of Microencapsulated Enzymes into screen PRINTed carbon graphite inks, aims to assess the feasibility of microencapsulating enzymes and mediators for inclusion in a water based carbon ink. If successful this system will be used to construct biosensors by screen printing. The microencapsulation of enzymes should lead to improved stability of enzymes during the printing process, enhanced enzyme stability and a reduction in the number of printing steps to construct the biosensor. The project thus covers the scope of three technology areas specified in the TSB Formulated Products call, namely formulation for delivery, formulation for stability and formulation for sustainability. This novel application of microencapsulation technology will deliver ingredients precisely to a very specific area on a biosensor. It will improve the stability of all the ingredients encapsulated and replace a solvent based screen printing ink with a water based environmentally friendly one. The use of this novel ink will lead to dramatic savings in labour costs, operating costs and raw material costs for the oroduction of diabetic test strips and other screen printed biosenors.