Direct and “in situ” determination of ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

The Spanish research group is an interdisciplinary and interuniversity group in the areas of knowledge of evolutionary and educational psychology, the area of personality, psychological evaluation and treatment, medicine, and computing engineering. This Spanish research group has a wide experience in the application of machine learning techniques in the study of the use of active methodologies in health and belongs to a medium-sized Spanish university founded in 1994, housing others 76 research groups more. The university has been very active in several European research and innovation programmes (H2020 and previous frame programmes, LIFE, Justice, ERASMUS+, Interreg, COST, LLP, IEE, Research Fund for Coal and Steel, D. G. for Competition Policy and Strategy, Science for Peace and Security Programme-OTAN…) with over 50 European projects; with the role of coordinator in 22 projects and over 8.4 M€ overall EU funding received. Currently, this university participates in 26 on-going projects (in 12 of them as coordinator) in 8 different EU programmes with an average of 1.7 M€ of EU funding in the last 4 years. The objective of the technology offered is facilitate the measurement of ascorbic acid. Commonly employed methods present some disadvantages such as a poor selectivity and a progressive deterioration of the sensitivity of the electrode when used in complex matrices. This new device solves these disadvantages by employing disposable electrodes that allow the determination of ascorbic acid with greater sensitivity in different types of samples, for example in biological and food samples. The analysis is based on the oxidation of ascorbic acid into dehydroascorbic acid. The device developed is of an electrode nature, characterized by comprising three disposable electrodes: one working electrode, one auxiliary or counter electrode, and one reference electrode. Each one includes a contact or terminal, a section and an active area. All electrodes have been manufactured by silkscreen printing with conductive material ink on a plastic polyester (PET) sheet. Each electrode has a specific shape, to be adapted easily to their respective functions. The terminals and sections have been printed with an Ag-based ink (Ag: silver). The active surfaces of the counter electrode and working electrode have been printed with a conductive ink of C (C: carbon), and the active surface of the reference electrode has been printed with an Ag/AgCl ink (Cl: chlorine). At the same time, the active area of the working electrode is modified with gold nanoparticles. The kit presents a high responsiveness determining the ascorbic acid with great sensitivity so can be used in sectors such as health, food and beverages as the main potential applications. The researcher group is interested in international cooperation under license agreement and/or manufacturing agreement, with other research organization or universities and any size companies.