Internet of Things enabled portable thermal management system with microfluidic platform to synthesize MnO₂...

Evidently, microfluidic devices are proven to be one of the most effective and powerful tools for manipulating, preparing, functionalizing and producing new generation nanoparticles and nanocomposites. Their benefits include low solution/sample feeding, excellent handling of reagents, exceptional control of size and composition, compactness, easy to process with rapid thermal management and cost-effectiveness. Such advantages have led to the endorsement of nano-microscale fabrication methods to develop highly controllable and reproducible minuscule devices. This work aims to design and develop a microscale-based temperature control device with added features like low-cost, portability, miniaturized, easy-to-use, minuscule reaction volume and point-of-source system for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The device incorporates many features such as real-time data access with a GUI interface with a smartphone open-source app for Bluetooth and Database cloud for an Internet of Things module. The portable thermal device is then calibrated and is capable of achieving a maximum temperature of 250 °C in 25 min. The fabricated device is harnessed for the synthesis of manganese oxide (MnO₂) nanoparticles. The synthesized nanoparticles were subjected to various characterization techniques like SEM and XPS to analyze the surface morphology. To test the applicability, as a proof of concept, the synthesized nanoparticles were tested for electrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide and dopamine. Overall, the portable device can be utilized for carrying out diverse temperature-controlled reactions in a microfluidic system in a user-friendly and automated manner.