%0 Journal Article
%T Ink-Jet Printing of Gluconobacter oxydans: Micropatterned Coatings As High Surface-to-Volume Ratio Bio-Reactive Coatings
%A Marcello Fidaleo
%A Nadia Bortone
%A Mark Schulte
%A Michael C. Flickinger
%J Coatings
%D 2014
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/coatings4010001
%X We formulated a latex ink for ink-jet deposition of viable Gram-negative bacterium Gluconobacter oxydans as a model adhesive, thin, highly bio-reactive microstructured microbial coating. Control of G. oxydans latex-based ink viscosity by dilution with water allowed ink-jet piezoelectric droplet deposition of 30 ¡Á 30 arrays of two or three droplets/dot microstructures on a polyester substrate. Profilometry analysis was used to study the resulting dry microstructures. Arrays of individual dots with base diameters of ~233¨C241 ¦Ìm were obtained. Ring-shaped dots with dot edges higher than the center, 2.2 and 0.9 ¦Ìm respectively, were obtained when a one-to-four diluted ink was used. With a less diluted ink (one-to-two diluted), the microstructure became more uniform with an average height of 3.0 ¦Ìm, but the ink-jet printability was more difficult. Reactivity of the ink-jet deposited microstructures following drying and rehydration was studied in a non-growth medium by oxidation of 50 g/L D-sorbitol to L-sorbose, and a high dot volumetric reaction rate was measured (~435 g¡¤L £¿1¡¤h £¿1). These results indicate that latex ink microstructures generated by ink-jet printing may hold considerable potential for 3D fabrication of high surface-to-volume ratio biocoatings for use as microbial biosensors with the aim of coating microbes as reactive biosensors on electronic devices and circuit chips.
%K biocatalytic latex inks and biocoatings
%K ink-jet printed biocoatings
%K whole-cell biosensors
%K immobilized G. oxydans
%K oxidation of D-sorbitol to L-sorbose
%U http://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/4/1/1