A Microfluidic Chip with Integrated Microelectrodes for Real-time Dopamine Detection

A microfluidic chip with integrated microelectrodes for real-time dopamine (DA) detection was designed and fabricated. The chip consisted of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channel plate and a glass electrode plate. One central channel as the culture chamber of neural stem cells and two lateral channels for the transportation of the culture medium were integrated on the PDMS channel plate. Microelectrodes for real-time dopamine detection were integrated on the glass electrode plate. To solve the problem in demoulding the PDMS channel plate from the silicon mold, a novel demoulding method was developed. An Au-Au-Au three-electrode system was constructed, and it performed well in electrochemical detection. The performance of the microfluidic chip was primarily studied by detecting dopamine dissolved in the medium for the culture of neural stem cells. The detection limit of dopamine was 3.92 μM, the linear detection range was from 10 μM to 500 μM, and the detection reproducibility from different chips was less than 4%.

Graphical abstractA polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/glass hybrid microfluidic chip with integrated microelectrodes for real-time dopamine detection was designed and fabricated. A novel method for demoulding PDMS channel plates was developed. An Au-Au-Au three-electrode system was constructed. The performance of the microfluidic chip was primarily studied.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide