Gold nanoparticle-based optical microfluidic sensors for analysis of environmental pollutants

Conventional methods of environmental analysis can be significantly improved by the development of portable microscale technologies for direct in-field sensing at remote locations. This report demonstrates the vast potential of gold nanoparticle-based microfluidic sensors for the rapid, in-field, de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Lab on a chip 2012-11, Vol.12 (22), p.4651-4656
Main Authors: Lafleur, Josiane P, Senkbeil, Silja, Jensen, Thomas G, Kutter, Jörg P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Cattle
Chemistry Techniques, Analytical - instrumentation
Contaminants
Environmental Pollutants - analysis
Environmental Pollutants - chemistry
Gold
Gold - chemistry
Mercury - analysis
Mercury - chemistry
Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - methods
Microfluidics
Nanocomposites
Nanomaterials
Nanostructure
Optical Phenomena
Pesticides
Sensors
Spectrometry, Fluorescence
Ziram - analysis
Ziram - chemistry
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Summary:Conventional methods of environmental analysis can be significantly improved by the development of portable microscale technologies for direct in-field sensing at remote locations. This report demonstrates the vast potential of gold nanoparticle-based microfluidic sensors for the rapid, in-field, detection of two important classes of environmental contaminants - heavy metals and pesticides. Using gold nanoparticle-based microfluidic sensors linked to a simple digital camera as the detector, detection limits as low as 0.6 μg L −1 and 16 μg L −1 could be obtained for the heavy metal mercury and the dithiocarbamate pesticide ziram, respectively. These results demonstrate that the attractive optical properties of gold nanoparticle probes combine synergistically with the inherent qualities of microfluidic platforms to offer simple, portable and sensitive sensors for environmental contaminants. This report demonstrates that gold nanoparticle-based sensors offer an attractive pathway for the detection of pollutants on microfluidic devices.
ISSN:1473-0197
1473-0189
DOI:10.1039/c2lc40543a