Tetrazine-based chemistry for nitrite determination in a paper microfluidic device

•The determination of nitrite by a colorimetric microfluidic paper-based analytical device.•A new nitrite chemistry is proposed for nitrite determination.•The oxidation of s-dihydrotetrazine by nitrite changes the color of the µPAD.•The color is measured by a digital camera/smartphone and used as the analytical parameter.

We present a new chemistry to determine nitrites implemented in a microfluidic paper-based analytical device (µPAD). The device is fabricated in cellulose paper with a sample reception area and three replicate detection areas with recognition chemistry immobilized by adsorption. The method involves the use of nitrite in an acid medium reaction to generate nitrous acid, which produces the oxidation of s-dihydrotetrazine: 1,2-dihydro-3,6-bis(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-1,2,4,5-tetrazine (DHBPTz), which change the detection zone from colorless to pink. We used a digital camera and smartphone for the quantitative analysis of nitrite with the color coordinate S of the HSV color space as the analytical parameter. Parameters such as concentration and volume of s-dihydrotetrazine, pH, sample volume and reaction time were studied. The detection limit for this method is 1.30 µM nitrite. To estimate the selectivity of the method an interference study of common ions in water samples was performed. The procedure was applied to natural water and compared with reference procedures.

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