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A microfluidic column of water index–matched packed microspheres for label-free observation of water pollutants

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Abstract

A microfluidic, label-free optical sensor for water pollutants, which is based on a packed micro-column of microspheres with refractive index similar to that of water, is presented. The perfluoropolyether microspheres are synthetized by membrane emulsification followed by UV irradiation. The microfluidic channel hosting the packed column is transparent when filled with pure water as a consequence of refractive index matching, whereas it scatters light in presence of compounds with lipophilic moieties that spontaneously adsorb on the fluorinated microspheres. The device is characterized by investigating the response to cationic and anionic surfactants. Both the signal growth rate and the recovery rate measured during washing with water depend on the type and concentration of the compounds. The cationic surfactants tested display a larger signal increase, linearly scaling with concentration. A limit of detection of 1 μM is obtained in the current configuration. The water index–matched microspheres enable to access an additional analytical parameter, that is the propagation velocity of the scattering signal along the column. This parameter is also found to scale linearly with concentration, hence providing a complementary analytical tool sensitive to the adhesion kinetics.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors, upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Emanuele Di Nicolò and Mattia Bassi for useful discussions.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Funding

This research was funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research and technological development and demonstration through the NAPES project, grant agreement no. 604241.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, via F.lli Cervi 93, 20054, Segrate, Milan, Italy

    Roberta Lanfranco, Deborah Abati, Thomas Carzaniga & Marco Buscaglia

  2. Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU, Analytical Microsystems & Materials for Lab-on-a-Chip (AMMa-LOAC) Group, Analytical Chemistry Department, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Barrio Sarriena s/n, 48940, Leioa, Spain

    Janire Saez & Fernando Benito-Lopez

Authors
  1. Roberta Lanfranco
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  2. Janire Saez
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  3. Deborah Abati
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  4. Thomas Carzaniga
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  5. Fernando Benito-Lopez
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  6. Marco Buscaglia
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Contributions

Roberta Lanfranco: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis and investigation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing; Janire Saez: Methodology, Writing- Reviewing and Editing; Deborah Abati: Formal analysis and investigation, Visualization; Thomas Carzaniga: Data curation, Formal analysis and investigation, Visualization; Fernando Benito-Lopez: Supervision, Conceptualization, Resources, Writing- Reviewing and Editing; Marco Buscaglia: Supervision, Conceptualization, Resources, Writing- Original draft preparation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Fernando Benito-Lopez or Marco Buscaglia.

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Lanfranco, R., Saez, J., Abati, D. et al. A microfluidic column of water index–matched packed microspheres for label-free observation of water pollutants. Microchim Acta 188, 143 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04804-2

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