from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Today, there is considerable interest in the development of microfluidic chips that can be integrated into various analytical devices and further used for chemical or biological research. The microfluidic approach can reduce the size of all types of analytical laboratory equipment’s and improve their technological performances. In addition, in combination with Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), microfluidic devices can detect unprecedentedly low concentrations of targeted analytes. SERS provides a significant amplification of the nonlinear optical response of a molecule adsorbed on a suitable plasmon-active (most often silver or gold) surface (for example nanograting, nanoparticles, etc.). On the other hand, microfluidics allows a substantial reduction in the volume of sample required for analysis. In this work, an approach based on a combination of SERS and microfluidics was implemented and enables the detection of low concentrations of the target analyte - hormones. Proposed preparation of microfluidic chip comprises several subsequent steps: (i) preparation of microfluidic platform using 3D printing; (ii) laser assisted creation of patterned surface, further covered by a thin Au layer, ensuring the excitation of surface plasmon polariton in the microfluidic canal, (iii) subsequent grafting of -NH2 groups, and their activation for hormones entrapping. The rapid, reproducible, and ultrasensitive detection of hormones - Bisphenol, Estradiol, Estriol (< 10-6 M) was achieved.
Keywords: Lab-on-a-chip, SERS, 3D printing, microfluidics system, hormones© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.