Screen-printed disposable electrodes: Pharmaceutical applications and recent developments

Miniaturization is crucial for the development of the current analytical tools. Several types of disposable electrochemical sensors based on the technology of screen printing have been designed for economic and practical feasibility. In the past few decades, several advances have been made in the setup and assembly of printing materials for screen-printed electrodes (SPEs). Due to their excellent material properties, simplicity, disposability, and short response times, SPEs have been efficiently used for rapid in situ analysis. This review aims to describe the elementary fabrication principles, the different designs of SPEs, and the different analytical methods based on SPEs. We particularly focus on the electrochemical application of SPEs in pharmaceutical analysis, including the determination of drugs, metabolites, and degradation products in different matrices.