A whole blood sample-to-answer polymer lab-on-a-chip with superhydrophilic surface toward point-of-care technology

An innovative sample-to-answer (S-to-A) polymer lab-on-a-chip (LOC) with a blood plasma separator based on asymmetric capillary force has been proposed, developed, and completely characterized for point-of-care technology (POCT) applications. A spray layer-by-layer (LbL) nanoassembly coating has been applied for the superhydrophilic surface onto the cyclic olefin copolymer (COC). Then, the developed superwetting surfaces were designed and optimized for three device applications such as lateral transportation of whole blood in the device by capillary pumping, on-chip whole blood/plasma separation with an asymmetric capillary force, and detection using a capillary-driven lateral flow colorimetric assay. Integrating three primary components of the devices, the S-to-A polymer LOC platform has been effectively confirmed for the lateral flow colorimetric assay of bovine serum albumin (BSA) from unprocessed human whole blood without an external power resource.