An integrated microfluidic chip for rapid methanol detection

Abstract

A widely-available CO2 laser scriber is used to perform direct-writing ablation on a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate to create a microfluidic chip for the rapid detection of methanol. The microfluidic designs are created using commercial layout software and are converted into the command signals required to drive the laser scriber in such a way as to reproduce the desired microchannel configuration on the surface of a PMMA substrate. Experimental results indicate that, using the proposed integrated microfluidic chip, linearity expression R2 can reach 0.9972 when using 2 unit methanol oxidase (MOX) and basic fuchsin to detect methanol. The proposed device is thus a valuable tool for rapid methanol detection, with its micro mixer system providing a simple yet effective solution for mixing problems in the field of micro-total-analysis-systems. © 2012 International Journal of Automation and Smart Technology.