Abstract:
In this work, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a well-known material for microfluidic devices, was used to fabricate a digital magnetofluidic device. The use of PDMS material allows for easy fabrication and flexibility. The superhydrophobic property of PDMS surface was easily achieved using a one-pot method by reduction between chloroauric acid and sodium formate. The superhydrophobic property of PDMS surface was investigated using water contact angle (WCA) and contact angle hysteresis, which were found to be 163.9° and 0°, respectively, indicating the superhydrophobic surface. The morphology of gold coated PDMS surface was characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and a Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrophotometer. The fabricated device was challenged to demonstrate 4 types of experiments. First, titration experiments were introduced as a mixing reaction. Second, colorimetric detection of phosphate based on the molybdenum blue method was represented as a complex reaction. The fabricated devices could be used to determine phosphate in the linear concentration range of 10-100 ppm. Third, the colorimetric detection of glucose using glucose oxidase was demonstrated as an enzymatic reaction. The linearity used for quantitative analysis was in the range of 1-20 mM and recovery percentages of glucose added in beverage samples were in the range of 89.56-106.75%. Finally, the colorimetric detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) using immunomagnetic separation was presented as a multi-step reaction involving mixing, washing, and detection. From the results, the colorimetric detection of CRP was successfully performed using the fabricated devices. Therefore, the superhydrophobic gold-coated PDMS was successfully developed as a digital magnetofluidic device for acid-base titration. In addition, the fabricated device could be used to colorimetrically detect each analyte based on complex, enzymatic, and multi-step reactions.