The use of capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C 4 D) on miniaturized systems has increased considerably over the last few years. Since the first report, 10 years ago, several advances on the detection cell geometry, strategies for increasing the sensitivity and a wide range of applications have been reported. This review intends to cover the main features related to the instrumental setup of this detection method for analytical and bioanalytical assays on microfluidic chips.

Compared to conventional bench-top instruments, microfluidic devices possess advantageous characteristics including great portability potential, reduced analysis time (minutes), and relatively inexpensive production, putting them on the forefront of modern analytical chemistry. Fabrication of these devices, however, often involves polymeric materials with less-than-ideal surface properties, specific instrumentation, and cumbersome fabrication procedures. In order to overcome such drawbacks, a new hybrid platform is proposed. The platform is centered on the use of 5 interconnecting microfluidic components that serve as the injector or reservoirs. These plastic units are interconnected using standard capillary tubing, enabling in-channel detection by a wide variety of standard techniques, including capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D). Due to the minimum impact on the separation efficiency, the plastic microfluidic components used for the experiments discussed herein were fabricated using an inexpensive engraving tool and standard Plexiglas. The presented approach (named 52-platform) offers a previously unseen versatility: enabling the assembly of the platform within minutes using capillary tubing that differs in length, diameter, or material. The advantages of the proposed design are demonstrated by performing the analysis of inorganic cations by capillary electrophoresis on soil samples from the Atacama Desert.

In this report, we describe a rapid and reliable process to bond channels fabricated in glass substrates. Glass channels were fabricated by photolithography and wet chemical etching. The resulting channels were bonded against another glass plate containing a 50-microm thick PDMS layer. This same PDMS layer was also used to provide the electrical insulation of planar electrodes to carry out capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection. The analytical performance of the proposed device was shown by using both LIF and capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection systems. Efficiency around 47,000 plates/m was achieved with good chip-to-chip repeatability and satisfactory long-term stability of EOF. The RSD for the EOF measured in three different devices was ca. 7%. For a chip-to-chip comparison, the RSD values for migration time, electrophoretic current and peak area were below 10%. With the proposed approach, a single chip can be fabricated in less than 30 min including patterning, etching and sealing steps. This fabrication process is faster and easier than the thermal bonding process. Besides, the proposed method does not require high temperatures and provides excellent day-to-day and device-to-device repeatability.

This communication describes a new procedure to increase the sensitivity of C(4)D in PDMS/glass microchips. The method consists in doping the insulating layer (PDMS) over the electrodes with nanoparticles of TiO(2), increasing thus its dielectric constant. The experimental protocol is simple, inexpensive, and fast.

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This communication reports a promising platform for rapid, simple, direct, and ultrasensitive determination of serotonin. The method is related to integration of vertically aligned singlewalled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in electrochemical microfluidic devices. The required microfabrication protocol is simple and fast. In addition, the nanomaterial influenced remarkably the obtained limit-of-detection (LOD) values. Our system achieved a LOD of 0.2 nmol L 21 for serotonin, to the best of our knowledge one of the lowest values reported in the literature.Glass/elastomer hybrid microfluidic platforms with integrated electrochemical detectors are powerful analytical tools. Their main advantages include: (i) low cost; (ii) chemical inertia; (iii) optical transparency; (iv) thermal, mechanical, and chemical stability; (v) automation capacity, and; (vi) easy microfabrication. In addition, they offer high values of reproducibility and sensitivity.

This paper reports a method for rapid, simple, direct, and reproducible determination of glyphosate and its major metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). The platform described herein uses polyester-toner microchips incorporating capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection and electrophoresis separation of the analytes. The polyester-toner microchip presented 150 μm-wide and 12 μm-deep microchannels, with injection and separation lengths of 10 and 40 mm long, respectively. The best results were obtained with 320 kHz frequency, 4.5 Vpp excitation voltage, 80 mmol/L CHES/Tris buffer at pH 8.8, injection in -1.0 kV for 7 s, and separation in -1.5 kV. RSD values related to the peak areas for glyphosate and AMPA were 1.5 and 3.3% and 10.1 and 8.6% for intra- and interchip assays, respectively. The detection limits were 45.1 and 70.5 μmol/L, respectively, without any attempt of preconcentration of the analytes. Finally, the method was applied to river water samples in which glyphosate and AMPA (1.0 mmol/L each) were added. The recovery results were 87.4 and 83.7% for glyphosate and AMPA, respectively. The recovery percentages and LOD values obtained here were similar to others reported in the literature.

In this communication, we describe for the first time the integration of concentric electrodes (wrapping around the microchannel) in microchips. The use of such electrodes has been shown to be effective towards improvement of the sensitivity and detectability in pressure-driven flow platforms incorporating C(4)D.