A high-precision micropipette sensor for cellular-level real-time thermal characterization

We report herein development of a novel glass micropipette thermal sensor fabricated in a cost-effective manner, which is capable of measuring steady thermal fluctuation at spatial resolution of ∼2 μm with an accuracy of ±0.01 °C. We produced and tested various micrometer-sized sensors, ranging from...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2011-09, Vol.11 (9), p.8826-8835
Main Authors: Shrestha, Ramesh, Choi, Tae-Youl, Chang, Wonseok, Kim, Donsik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Borosilicate glasses
Calibration
Cellular
cellular-level
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Humans
Injection molding
laser
Lasers
micropipette
Microscopy
Nickel
Reproducibility of Results
Retinal Pigment Epithelium - cytology
Sensors
Solders
Temperature
Temperature sensors
thermal sensor
Thermocouples
Thermoelectricity
Thin film coatings
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We report herein development of a novel glass micropipette thermal sensor fabricated in a cost-effective manner, which is capable of measuring steady thermal fluctuation at spatial resolution of ∼2 μm with an accuracy of ±0.01 °C. We produced and tested various micrometer-sized sensors, ranging from 2 μm to 30 μm. The sensor comprises unleaded low-melting-point solder alloy (Sn-based) as a core metal inside a pulled borosilicate glass pipette and a thin film of nickel coating outside, creating a thermocouple junction at the tip. The sensor was calibrated using a thermally insulated calibration chamber, the temperature of which can be controlled with an accuracy of ±0.01 °C, and the thermoelectric power (Seebeck coefficient) of the sensor was recorded from 8.46 to 8.86 μV/°C. We have demonstrated the capability of measuring temperatures at a cellular level by inserting our temperature sensor into the membrane of a live retinal pigment epithelium cell subjected to a laser beam with a focal spot of 6 μm. We measured transient temperature profiles and the maximum temperatures were in the range of 38-55 ± 0.5 °C.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s110908826