Delayed voltammetric with respect to amperometric electrochemical detection of concentration changes in microchannels

Voltammetric Ion Sensing with Ionophore-Based Ion-Selective Electrodes Containing Internal Aqueous Solution, Improving Lifetime of Sensors

The possibility of voltammetric ion sensing is demonstrated, for the first time, for ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) containing an internal aqueous solution. ISEs selective to calcium, lithium and potassium ions are used as model systems. The internal solution of the ISEs contains a chloride salt of the respective cation and a ferrocenemethanol or ferrocyanide/ferricyanide redox couple. A platinum wire is used as the internal reference electrode. It is shown, theoretically and experimentally, that the dependence of oxidation and reduction peak potentials on the sample composition obeys the Nernst law, while the peak currents virtually do not depend on the sample composition. Thus, the electrode behavior is similar to that reported by Bakker's group for solid contact ISEs with ultra-thin membranes (200-300 nm). It is shown that the use of classical ISEs with relatively thick membranes (100-300 µm) and internal aqueous solution allows for the sensor lifetime of about one month. It is also shown that use of a suitable background electrolyte allows for improvement of the detection limits in voltammetric measurements with ISEs.

A microfluidic electrochemical sensing platform for in situ detection of trace cadmium ions

Among various detection and analysis platforms, a microfluidic chip-based electrochemical sensing detection platform is a new type of detection platform. In this study, a microfluidic electrochemical detection platform for cadmium ion detection is proposed, and the performance of the detection platform is optimized in terms of both the microchannel size and electrode modifications. The detection mixing processes of the detector with different microchannel sizes, including the concentration distribution in the channel, pressure decay variation and electrolyte current density variation in the detector, were investigated by finite element model calculations. The analysis shows that the size of the microchannel in the detector affects the fluid and thus further affects the chemical reaction. If the size of the electrode does not match the size of the microchannel, insufficient sample volume will lead to inaccurate measurements, reduced sensitivity and increased detection limits. It was found that the sensitivity of the electrochemical sensor was highest when the size of the microchannel in the chip was 400 μm. After optimization, the optimal detection limit for cadmium ions was 0.03 μg L^-1 (S/N = 3). The proposed sensing platform is simple in design and stable in structure, and is suitable for field screening and rapid response to heavy metal contamination events.

Low-cost and versatile integration of microwire electrodes and optical waveguides into silicone elastomeric devices using modified xurographic methods

Microelectrodes are used in microfluidic devices for a variety of purposes such as heating, applying electric fields, and electrochemical sensing. However, they are still manufactured by expensive deposition techniques such as sputtering or evaporation and patterned using photolithography methods. More recently, alternate methods including nanoparticle sintering and use of liquid metal flowing through microchannels have been used to fabricate microelectrodes. These methods are limited in the material choices or require post processing to be integrated into microchannels. Here we developed a low-cost and versatile method to integrate high-quality metal microwires into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using xurography. The microwire integration process includes cutting slit pattern on PDMS substrate and subsequent writing metal microwires into the slit pattern using a specialized tip. Then the microwire-integrated PDMS was sealed/bonded using uncured PDMS prepolymer. This method enables integration of metal microwires of diameter as small as 15 μm into PDMS devices. Integration of multiple microwires with minimum spacing of 150 μm has also been demonstrated. The versatility of this method is demonstrated by the fabrication of metal microwire suspended in the middle of the microchannel, which is difficult to achieve using conventional electrode fabrication methods. This low-cost method avoids expensive clean room fabrication yet producing high-quality electrodes and can be used in a variety of microfluidic and MEMS applications.

A cracking-assisted micro-/nanofluidic fabrication platform for silver nanobelt arrays and nanosensors

Nanowires (NWs) with a high surface-to-volume ratio are advantageous for bio- or chemical sensor applications with high sensitivity, high selectivity, rapid response, and low power consumption. However, NWs are typically fabricated by combining several nanofabrication and even microfabrication processes, resulting in drawbacks such as high fabrication cost, extensive labor, and long processing time. Here, we show a novel NW fabrication platform based on "crack-photolithography" to produce a micro-/nanofluidic channel network. Solutions were loaded along the microchannel, while chemical synthesis was performed in the nanoslit-like nanochannels for fabricating silver nanobelts (AgNBs). In addition, the NW/NB fabrication platform not only made it possible to produce AgNBs in a repeatable, high-throughput, and low-cost manner but also allowed the simultaneous synthesis and alignment of AgNBs on a chip, eliminating the need for special micro- and/or nanofabrication equipment and dramatically reducing the processing time, labor, and cost. Finally, we demonstrated that the AgNBs can be used as chemical sensors, either as prepared or when integrated in a flexible substrate, to detect target analytes such as hydrogen peroxide.