A Portable Wireless Electrochemical Sensor for Ethanol Detection in Human Saliva
Tae Mu Lee, Jin Oh Park, Hyun Jae Baek, Kwang Bok KimABSTRACT
Alcohol‐impaired driving highlights the need for reliable pre‐driving alcohol screening technologies. We present a portable wireless electrochemical sensing system for non‐invasive ethanol monitoring in human saliva. The system integrates a disposable Au/self‐assembled monolayer (SAM)/ferrocene‐cored poly(amidoamine) dendrimer (Fc‐PAMAM)/alcohol oxidase (AOx) sensing electrode with a portable wireless potentiostat. Fc‐PAMAM functions as both a redox mediator and an enzyme immobilization matrix, facilitating interfacial electron transfer and stable AOx immobilization. The developed system exhibited concentration‐dependent chronoamperometric responses to ethanol over 0–80 mM in artificial saliva with high linearity (R 2 > 0.99). Furthermore, the portable system detected time‐dependent changes in electrochemical responses from human saliva following alcohol consumption, demonstrating its applicability to real‐sample monitoring. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed platform as a portable and non‐invasive approach for salivary ethanol monitoring and as a complementary tool to conventional breath‐based alcohol screening.