What is it about?

Originality/value – The excessive use and commercialization of NPs are quickly expanding their toxic impact on health and the environment. Also, LOD is limited to the nanomolar range. The proposed method used the combination of thin-film, NPs, and MEMS-based technology to overcome the limitation of the NPs-based technique and have a picomolar range of HMIs detection.

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Why is it important?

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a new microfluidic portable experimental platform for quick detection of heavy metal ions (HMIs) in the picomolar range. The experimental setup uses a microfabricated piezoresistive sensor (MPS) array of eight cantilevers with ion-selective self-assembled monolayer’s (SAM). Design/methodology/approach – Most of the components used in this experimental setup are battery operated and, hence, portable to perform the on-field experiments. HMIs (antigen) and thiol-based SAM (antibody) interaction start bending the microcantilever. This results in a change of resistance, which is directly proportional to the surface stress produced due to the mass of targeted HMIs. The authors have used Cysteamine and 4-Mercaptobenzoic acid as a thiol for creating SAM to test the sensitivity and identify the suitable thiol. Some of the cantilevers are blocked using acetyl chloride to use as a reference for error detection. Findings – The portable experimental platform achieves a very small detection time of 10-25 min with a lower limit of detection (LOD) 0.762 ng (6.05 pM) for SAM of Cysteamine and 4-Mercaptobenzoic acid to detect Mn2+ ions. This technique has excellent potential and capability to selectively detect Hg2+ ions as low as 2.43 pM/mL using SAM of Homocysteine (Hcys)-Pyridinedicarboxylic acid (PDCA).

Perspectives

Water pollution due to HMIs is a global problem that has led to increased water quality demands. Approximately 15 million children under the age of five die each year because of diseases caused by water out of which HMIs is the most harmful water contaminants. Most of the HMIs are transition metals that can persuade environmental pollution because of their high residues and is very difficult to remove.

Dinesh Rotake

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This page is a summary of: Design of microfluidic experimental setup for the detection of heavy metal ions using piezoresistive BioMEMS sensor, Microelectronics International, November 2019, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/mi-05-2019-0025.
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