Integration of multiple-ion-sensing on a capillary-assembled microchip.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Microfluidics
• Chemical Sensing

Background:

• Integrating multiple chemical sensing functions onto a single microchip presents significant challenges.
• Existing microchip technologies often lack the flexibility for parallel multi-ion detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel capillary-assembled microchip (CAs-CHIP) for integrated multiple-ion sensing.
• To demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of a microchip capable of simultaneously detecting sodium, potassium, and calcium ions.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of chemically functionalized square capillaries with ion-selective optode membranes.
• Characterization of ion-sensing capillaries for response time, range, and selectivity.
• Assembly of ion-sensing capillaries onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channel plate to create the CAs-CHIP.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated and characterized sodium, potassium, and calcium ion-sensing capillaries.
• Demonstrated the integration of these sensing capillaries onto a single PDMS microchip.
• The CAs-CHIP exhibited efficient parallel multiple-ion sensing capabilities.

Conclusions:

• The capillary-assembled microchip (CAs-CHIP) strategy enables straightforward integration of multiple chemical sensing functions.
• This approach is a promising platform for developing advanced microfluidic devices for simultaneous ion detection.