A Butyl Methacrylate Monolithic Column Prepared In-Situ on a Microfluidic Chip and its Applications

• Main Authors: Qiang Cao, Ping Zeng, Wenpin Zhang, Yi Xu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2009-05-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: BMA monolithic column; separation and preconcentration; microfluidic chip
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/9/5/3437/

A butyl methacrylate (BMA) monolithic column was polymerized in-situ with UV irradiation in an ultraviolet transparent PDMS micro-channel on a homemade micro-fluidic chip. Under the optimized conditions and using a typical polymerization mixture consisting of 75% porogenic solvents and 25% monomers, the BMA monolithic column was obtained as expected. The BET surface area ratio of the BMA monolithic column was 366 m2·g-1. The corresponding SEM images showed that the monolithic column material polymerized in a glass channel was composed of uniform pores and spherical particles with diameters ranging from 3 to 5 μm. The promethazine–luminal–potassium ferricyanide chemiluminescence system was selected for testing the capability of the column. A flow injection analytical technique–chemiluminescence (FIA–CL) system on the microfluidic chip with a BMA monolithic column pretreatment unit was established to determine promethazine. Trace promethazine was enriched by the BMA monolithic column, with more than a 10-fold average enrichment ratio. The proposed method has a linear response concentration range of 1.0×10-8 - 1.0×10-6g·mL-1 and the detection limit was 1.6×10-9g·mL-1.