Low-Cost Chemical-Responsive Adhesive Sensing Chips

Chemical-responsive adhesive sensing chip is a new low-cost analytical platform that uses adhesive tape loaded with indicator reagents to detect or quantify the target analytes by directly sticking the tape to the samples of interest. The chemical-responsive adhesive sensing chips can be used with paper to analyze aqueous samples; they can also be used to detect and quantify solid, particulate, and powder analytes. The colorimetric indicators become immediately visible as the contact between the functionalized adhesives and target samples is made. The chemical-responsive adhesive sensing chip expands the capability of paper-based analytical devices to analyze solid, particulate, or powder materials via one-step operation. It is also a simpler alternative way, to the covalent chemical modification of paper, to eliminate indicator leaching from the dipstick-style paper sensors. Chemical-responsive adhesive chips can display analytical results in the form of colorimetric dot patterns, symbols, and texts, enabling clear understanding of assay results by even nonprofessional users. In this work, we demonstrate the analyses of heavy metal salts in silica powder matrix, heavy metal ions in water, and bovine serum albumin in an aqueous solution. The detection is one-step, specific, sensitive, and easy-to-operate.