Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 84 |
| Journal | Gels |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
There is a strong commercial need for inexpensive point-of-use sensors for monitoring disease biomarkers or environmental contaminants in drinking water. Point-of-use sensors that employ smart polymer hydrogels as recognition elements can be tailored to detect almost any target analyte, but often suffer from long response times. Hence, we describe here a fabrication process that can be used to manufacture low-cost point-of-use hydrogel-based microfluidics sensors with short response times. In this process, mask-templated UV photopolymerization is used to produce arrays of smart hydrogel pillars inside sub-millimeter channels located upon microfluidics devices. When these pillars contact aqueous solutions containing a target analyte, they swell or shrink, thereby changing the resistance of the microfluidic channel to ionic current flow when a small bias voltage is applied to the system. Hence resistance measurements can be used to transduce hydrogel swelling changes into electrical signals. The only instrumentation required is a simple portable potentiostat that can be operated using a smartphone or a laptop, thus making the system suitable for point of use. Rapid hydrogel response rate is achieved by fabricating arrays of smart hydrogels that have large surface area-to-volume ratios.
Keywords
- Fast response time, Microfluidic sensors, Smart hydrogels, UV photopolymerization
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Chemical Engineering(all)
- Bioengineering
- Materials Science(all)
- Biomaterials
- Chemistry(all)
- Organic Chemistry
- Materials Science(all)
- Polymers and Plastics
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In: Gels, Vol. 4, No. 4, 84, 12.2018.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Low-cost microfluidic sensors with smart hydrogel patterned arrays using electronic resistive channel sensing for readout
AU - Leu, Hsuan Yu
AU - Farhoudi, Navid
AU - Reiche, Christopher F.
AU - Körner, Julia
AU - Mohanty, Swomitra
AU - Solzbacher, Florian
AU - Magda, Jules
N1 - Funding information: Funding: We gratefully acknowledge research funding support from the University of Utah Research Foundation and the Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation as well as the Olive Tupper Foundation.
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - There is a strong commercial need for inexpensive point-of-use sensors for monitoring disease biomarkers or environmental contaminants in drinking water. Point-of-use sensors that employ smart polymer hydrogels as recognition elements can be tailored to detect almost any target analyte, but often suffer from long response times. Hence, we describe here a fabrication process that can be used to manufacture low-cost point-of-use hydrogel-based microfluidics sensors with short response times. In this process, mask-templated UV photopolymerization is used to produce arrays of smart hydrogel pillars inside sub-millimeter channels located upon microfluidics devices. When these pillars contact aqueous solutions containing a target analyte, they swell or shrink, thereby changing the resistance of the microfluidic channel to ionic current flow when a small bias voltage is applied to the system. Hence resistance measurements can be used to transduce hydrogel swelling changes into electrical signals. The only instrumentation required is a simple portable potentiostat that can be operated using a smartphone or a laptop, thus making the system suitable for point of use. Rapid hydrogel response rate is achieved by fabricating arrays of smart hydrogels that have large surface area-to-volume ratios.
AB - There is a strong commercial need for inexpensive point-of-use sensors for monitoring disease biomarkers or environmental contaminants in drinking water. Point-of-use sensors that employ smart polymer hydrogels as recognition elements can be tailored to detect almost any target analyte, but often suffer from long response times. Hence, we describe here a fabrication process that can be used to manufacture low-cost point-of-use hydrogel-based microfluidics sensors with short response times. In this process, mask-templated UV photopolymerization is used to produce arrays of smart hydrogel pillars inside sub-millimeter channels located upon microfluidics devices. When these pillars contact aqueous solutions containing a target analyte, they swell or shrink, thereby changing the resistance of the microfluidic channel to ionic current flow when a small bias voltage is applied to the system. Hence resistance measurements can be used to transduce hydrogel swelling changes into electrical signals. The only instrumentation required is a simple portable potentiostat that can be operated using a smartphone or a laptop, thus making the system suitable for point of use. Rapid hydrogel response rate is achieved by fabricating arrays of smart hydrogels that have large surface area-to-volume ratios.
KW - Fast response time
KW - Microfluidic sensors
KW - Smart hydrogels
KW - UV photopolymerization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074296121&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/gels4040084
DO - 10.3390/gels4040084
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85074296121
VL - 4
JO - Gels
JF - Gels
IS - 4
M1 - 84
ER -