No abstract

We report the use of a thin-film polymer light emitting diode as an integrated excitation source for microfabricated capillary electrophoresis. The polyfluorene-based diode has a peak emission wavelength of 488 nm, an active area of 40 microm x 1000 microm and a thickness of similar 2 mm. The simple layer-by-layer deposition procedures used to fabricate the polymer component allow facile integration with planar chip-based systems. To demonstrate the efficacy of the approach, the polyfluorene diode is used as an excitation source for the detection of fluorescent dyes separated on-chip by electrophoresis. Using a conventional confocal detection system the integrated pLED is successfully used to detect fluorescein and 5-carboxyfluorescein at concentrations as low as 10(-6) M with a mass detection limit of 50 femtomoles. The drive voltages required to generate sufficient emission from the polymer diode device are as low as 3.7 V.

A novel method for performing in-column field-amplified sample stacking (FASS) in chip-based electrophoretic systems is presented. The methodology involves the use of a narrow sample channel (NSC) injector. NSC injectors allow sample plugs to be introduced directly into the separation channel, and subsequent stacking and separation can proceed without any need for leakage control. More importantly, stacking and separation occur in a single step negating the requirement for complex channel geometries and voltage switching to control sample plugs during the stacking procedure. The chip is composed of six paralleled systems. Using the NSC injector design, the number of reservoirs in the multiplexed chip is reduced to N + 2, where N is the number of paralleled systems. This design feature radically reduces the complexity in chip structures and associated chip operation. The approach is applied to the analysis of fluorescently labelled biogenic amines affording detection at concentrations down to 20 pM.

We demonstrate the monolithic integration of a chemical reactor with a capillary electrophoresis device for the rapid and sensitive analysis of biogenic amines. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) is widely employed for the analysis of amino-group containing analytes. However, the slow reaction kinetics hinders the use of this dye for on-chip labeling applications. Other alternatives are available such as o-phthaldehyde (OPA), however, the inferior photophysical properties and the UV lambdamax present difficulties when using common excitation sources leading to a disparity in sensitivity. Consequently, we present for the first time the use of dichlorotriazine fluorescein (DTAF) as a superior in situ derivatizing agent for biogenic amines in microfluidic devices. The developed microdevice employs both hydrodynamic and electroosmotic flow, facilitating the creation of a polymeric microchip to perform both precolumn derivatization and electrophoretic analysis. The favorable photophysical properties of the DTAF and its fast reaction kinetics provide detection limits down to 1 nM and total analysis times (including on-chip mixing and reaction) of <60 s. The detection limits are two orders of magnitude lower than current limits obtained with both FITC and OPA. The optimized microdevice is also employed to probe biogenic amines in real samples.

A polydimethylsiloxane-glass capillary microchip is fabricated for the rapid analysis of a mixture of common biogenic amines using indirect fluorescence detection. Using a running buffer of phosphate and 2-propanol, and Rhodamine 110 as a background fluorophore, both co-ionic and counter-ionic systems are explored. Studies demonstrate the separation and analysis of cations using indirect fluorescence detection for the first time in a chip-based system. Resulting electrophoretic separations are achieved within a few tens of seconds with detection limits of approximately 6 microM. The reduced sample handling and rapid separations afforded by the coupling of indirect fluorescence detection with chip-based capillary electrophoresis provide a highly efficient method for the analysis and detection of molecules not possessing a chromophore or fluorophore. Furthermore, limits of detection are on a par with reported chip-based protocols that incorporate precolumn derivatisation with fluorescence detection. The current device circumvents lengthy sample preparation stages and therefore provides an attractive alternative technique for the analysis biogenic amines.