Fabrication of universal serial bus flash disk type microfluidic chip electrophoresis and application for protein analysis under ultra low voltage

Abstract

A simple and effective universal serial bus (USB) flash disk type microfluidic chip electrophoresis (MCE) was developed by using poly(dimethylsiloxane) based soft lithography and dry film based printed circuit board etching techniques in this paper. The MCE had a microchannel diameter of 375 lm and an effective length of 25 mm. Equipped with a conventional online electrochemical detector, the device enabled effectively separation of bovine serum albumin, lysozyme, and cytochrome c in 80 s under the ultra low voltage from a computer USB interface. Compared with traditional capillary electrophoresis, the USB flash disk type MCE is not only portable and inexpensive but also fast with high separation efficiency. V C 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.

Analysis of proteins and peptides by electromigration methods in microchips

“…The electrodes (gold, silver, platinum, graphite, carbon nanotubes) can be directly fabricated on a chip. Universal serial bus (USB) flash disk type MCE was developed by using PDMS‐based soft lithography and dry film‐based printed circuit board etching techniques . The chip included a conventional on‐line electrochemical detector and was applied for the analysis of model proteins (BSA, lysozyme, and cytochrome c) under the ultra‐low voltage (+5 V) from a computer USB interface; the separation was finished in 80 s.…”

Fabrication of anti-protein-fouling poly(ethylene glycol) microfluidic chip electrophoresis by sandwich photolithography

“…2, the electrochemical measurements were adopted to detect the samples using a CHI-832C electrochemical analyzer (CH Instruments, China) at room temperature. An integrated microelectrode system, which was specially designed for low voltage detection as reported elsewhere, 24 was put into the detection reservoir with a Pt wire (CHI-115) as counter electrode, a bare gold electrode (CHI-105) as working electrode, and a Ag/AgCl electrode (CHI-111) as reference electrode. Before electrophoresis, the PEG/PDMS microchannel was flushed with 100 mM NaOH solution and deionized water, and then filled with 40 mM phosphate buffer solution (pH ¼ 6.0) from the reservoirs.…”

“…When the applied voltage value is 200 V, protein separation efficiency of the PEG MCE is relatively better. Due to the limitation of the integrated microelectrode system which is specially designed for low voltage detection, 24 higher voltages such as more than 300 V are not tested in this study. The comparison of the PEG MCE with traditional PDMS MCE in protein separation performance is shown in Fig.…”

“…Although it can be robust and reusable, the molding process creates microfabrication compatibility and integration issues, for instance, misalignment and packaging problems to another substrate. Compared with these traditional soft lithography methods, 24,39 the sandwich photolithography method of PEG prepolymers eliminates the need of a master mold, the need of alignment, and the additional modification process, provides a more facile and efficient way to rapid prototyping of anti-protein-fouling microfluidic chips.…”