A siphonage flow and thread-based low-cost platform enables quantitative and sensitive assays.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Materials Science

Background:

• Microfluidic devices often require external pumps, increasing cost and complexity.
• Developing low-cost, portable, and easy-to-operate analytical devices is crucial for widespread diagnostics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and validate a pump-free, material-abundant, portable, and low-cost microfluidic thread-based analytical device (S-μTAD) for quantitative and sensitive assays.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of using siphonage flow for microfluidic applications.

Main Methods:

• Fabricated Y-shaped microfluidic channels using a polyester cotton blend thread for enhanced chemiluminescent sensitivity.
• Developed S-μTAD sensors by immobilizing oxidase onto cotton thread for glucose and uric acid detection.
• Utilized renewable and continuous siphonage flow for replicate sampling and detection.

Main Results:

• Achieved high sensitivity with detection limits of 4 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ for hydrogen peroxide, 1 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ for glucose, and 3 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ for uric acid.
• Demonstrated acceptable reproducibility with relative standard deviations below 5%.
• Validated S-μTAD/sensor performance against hospital results for blood glucose and uric acid assays, showing good agreement.

Conclusions:

• The siphonage flow microfluidic thread-based analytical device (S-μTAD) is a viable platform for low-cost, portable, and quantitative microfluidics.
• The S-μTAD design is suitable for sensitive and accurate analysis of real biological samples.