Royal Society of Chemistry, Analyst, 24(139), p. 6580-6588, 2014
DOI: 10.1039/c4an01624f
Full text: Unavailable
We report the simple, low-cost, one-step fabrication method for microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPAD) using only polystyrene and a patterned screen. The polystyrene solution applied through the screen penetrates through the paper forming a three dimensional hydrophobic barrier, defining a hydrophilic analysis zone. The optimal polystyrene concentration and paper types were first investigated. Adjusting polystyrene concentration allows for various paper types to be used for successful device fabrication. Using an optimized polystyrene concentration with Whatman#4 filter paper, a linear relationship was found between the design width and the printed width. The smallest hydrophilic channel and hydrophobic barrier that can be obtained are 670±50 μm and 380±40 μm, respectively. High device-to-device fabrication reproducibility was achieved yielding a relative standard deviation (%RSD) in the range of 1.12-2.54% (n=64) of the measured diameter of the well-shaped fabricated test zones with a designed diameter of 5 and 7 mm. To demonstrate the utility of the fabricated μPAD, distance-based and well-based paper devices were constructed for the analysis of H2O2 and antioxidant activity, respectively. Analysis of H2O2 in real samples using distance-based measurement with CeO2 nanoparticles as the colorimetric agent gave the same results at 95% confidence level as those obtained using KMnO4 titration. A proof-of-concept antioxidant activity determination based on the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was also demonstrated. The results verify that the polymer screen-printing method can be used as an alternative method for μPAD fabrication.