Synergistic effect of acoustic streaming and nanozymes on enhanced intracellular dopamine detection

Microfluidic electrochemical biosensing has been widely recognized, but it suffers the slow mass transfer caused by low Reynolds number in the microenvironment. This work proposes a multifunctional portable microfluidic electrochemical platform integrated with a gigahertz acoustic resonator, achieving improved electrochemical response, in situ nanozymes modification, cellular pre-treatment and portable detection on one chip. It was observed that the acoustic streaming (AS) generated by the resonator could reduce the thickness of the double electric diffusion layer and improve the mass transfer in bulk solution, leading to an enhancement in microfluidic electrochemical current response. In addition, in situ electrodeposition of polypyrrole (Ppy) and Ni₃(HHTP)₂ nano-composite nanozymes (Ppy-Ni₃(HHTP)₂) was achieved to increase the electrocatalytic activity of dopamine (DA). The results further revealed that AS and Ppy-Ni₃(HHTP)₂ collectively enhance the electrochemical detection of DA. Moreover, cell pre-treatment and intracellular DA detection was achieved to distinguish the passage of dopaminergic cells by the microfluidic electrochemical platform. Finally, portable detection of intracellular dopamine was realized by integrating the platform with the portable electrochemical sensing system. This study presented a novel approach to collectively enhance electrochemical biosensing using AS and nanozymes.