Elsevier

Biosensors and Bioelectronics

Volume 77, 15 March 2016, Pages 774-789
Biosensors and Bioelectronics

Fabrication techniques for microfluidic paper-based analytical devices and their applications for biological testing: A review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2015.10.032Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We presented the fabrication techniques (two- and three-dimensional methods).

  • We summarized the application in biochemical, immunological and molecular detection.

  • The main advantages, disadvantages and future trends for the devices were discussed.

Abstract

Paper is increasingly recognized as a user-friendly and ubiquitous substrate for construction of microfluidic devices. Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) provide an alternative technology for development of affordable, portable, disposable and low-cost diagnostic tools for improving point of care testing (POCT) and disease screening in the developing world, especially in those countries with no- or low-infrastructure and limited trained medical and health professionals. We in this review present fabrication techniques for microfluidic devices and their respective applications for biological detection as reported to date. These include: (i) fabrication techniques: examples of devices fabricated by using two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) methods; (ii) detection application: biochemical, immunological and molecular detection by incorporating efficient detection methods such as, colorimetric detection, electrochemical detection, fluorescence detection, chemiluminescence (CL) detection, electrochemiluninescence (ECL) detection, photoelectrochemi (PEC) detection and so on. In addition, main advantages, disadvantages and future trends for the devices are also discussed in this review.

Introduction

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) were introduced in 2007 (Martinez et al., 2007). They have hydrophilic/hydrophobic micro-channel networks and associated analytical devices which can enable fluid handling and quantitative analysis for their potential applications in medicine, healthcare and environmental monitoring (Hu et al., 2014). The μPADs also have the ability to perform laboratory operations on micro-scale, using miniaturized equipment, hence having their significant stimulated concern as a multiplexable point of care testing (POCT) platform (Bier and Schumacher, 2013). When compared with the conventional microfluidic analytical devices which are fabricated by silicon, glass and superpolymer as their substrates, the μPADs, fabricated by paper, are affordable, user-friendly, ubiquitous and do not require external instruments and complex fabrication processes. They hence are providing a common platform for prototyping new POCT (Chen et al., 2015, Barbosa et al., 2015, Fan et al., 2015, Martins et al., 2015, Tan et al., 2015), particularly using in limited resource environments (Phillips and Lewis, 2014, Gubala et al., 2012, Warsinke, 2009, Peeling et al., 2006). The μPADs can enable fluid handling and quantitative analysis when applied in medicine, healthcare and environmental monitoring (Hu et al., 2014). Coupled with different fabrication methods and functional diagnostic equipments, to fabricate miniaturized portable medical tools, the μPADs have had many new developments recently (Zhang et al., 2015b, Li et al., 2015). There has been more than 100 articles involving the μPADs that have been published during 2014–2015. We therefore focus on the two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) fabrication methods, and their respective application for biochemical, immunological and molecular detection, incorporating efficient detection methods, such as colorimetry, electrochemistry, fluorescence, chemiluminescence (CL), electrochemiluninescence (ECL), photoelectrochemistry (PEC) etc. In addition, the main advantages, disadvantages and future trends for the devices are also discussed.

Section snippets

Fabrication techniques

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices can be fabricated by using 2D (Balu et al., 2009, Fu et al., 2010, Kauffman et al., 2010, Lutz et al., 2011) or 3D (Han et al., 2013, Kalisha and Tsutsui, 2014, Lewis et al., 2012, Li et al., 2014c, Liu and Crooks, 2011, Martinez et al., 2010a, Martinez et al., 2008a, Mosadegh et al., 2014, Schilling et al., 2013) methods, to transport fluids in both horizontal and vertical dimensions depending on complexity of the diagnostic application.

Application platforms

The main application of the μPADs is to provide low-cost, easy-to use, and portable analytical platforms for assays, either multi-analyte or semi-quantitative (even quantitative), in order to provide people living in the developing world with affordable disease diagnosis which is environmentally friendly (Li et al., 2012, Zhang et al., 2015a). According to their reaction mechanisms, these tests can be categorized into biochemical, immunological, and molecular detections.

Conclusions

As presented in this review, the μPADs have been employed for development of POCT, due to their potential for disposable, integrated and user-friendly diagnostic platforms as discussed. Production of the μPADs is advantageous because of the following reasons: (i) the devices have low-cost (Gan et al., 2014, Jarujamrus et al., 2012), they are lightweight, portable (Lan et al., 2013), time-dependent (Sana et al., 2014), energy efficient (with no pump or external equipment needed for running the

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81472831, 61201033), the Medical Key Talent Foundation of Jiangsu Province (RC2011081), the Medical Key Science and Technology Development Projects of Nanjing (ZKX11176), the Talents Planning of Six Summit Fields of Jiangsu Province (2013-WSN-054, 2013-WSN-056), and the Science and Technology Development Fund of Nanjing Medical University (2014NJMU138).

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