Portable Microplate Analyzer with a Thermostatic Chamber Based on a Smartphone for On-site Rapid Detection

A microplate method provides an efficient way to use modern detection technology. However, there are some difficulties concerning on-site detection, such as being non-portable and time-consuming. In this work, a novel portable microplate analyzer with a thermostatic chamber based on a smartphone was designed for rapid on-site detection. An analyzer with a wide-angle lens and an optical filter provides a proper environment for the microplate. A smartphone app-iPlate Monitor was used for RGB analyze of image. After a consistency experiment with a microtiter plate reader (MTPR), the normalized calibration curves were y = 0.7276x + 0.0243 (R² = 0.9906) and y = 0.3207x + 0.0094 (R² = 0.9917) with a BCA protein kit as well as y = 0.182x + 0.0134 (R² = 0.994) and y = 0.0674x + 0.0003 (R² = 0.9988) with a glucose kit. The times for obtaining the detection requirement were 15 and 10 min for the BCA protein kit and the glucose kit at 37°C; in contrast, it required more than 30 and 20 min at ambient temperature. Meanwhile, it also showed good repeatability for detections.