Microfluidic
paper-based sensors as a new type of microsample detection
technology are widely used in medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring,
and food safety testing. Inkjet printing has the advantages of simplicity,
speed, flexibility, high resolution, low cost, and efficient mass
production and has become one of the most cutting-edge technologies
in the manufacture of paper-based sensors. In this work, a fully inkjet
printing preparation method was proposed for paper-based sensors,
which can achieve high-precision, multichannel, and visual fluorescence
detection. Three kinds of fluorescent carbon dots (CDs; r-CDs, b-CDs,
and y-CDs) were fabricated into inkjet ink by adding a suitable ratio
of solvent, PEG, and surfactant FS3100 to control its viscosity, surface
tension, and other influencing factors, obtaining the best-visualized
fluorescence response on paper. To optimize the full inkjet printing
process of the paper-based sensor, we studied the influence of factors
such as the hydrophobic material AKD formula, postprocessing conditions,
and the structure of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic channels on the
paper-based detection accuracy, and it was found that proper AKD concentration,
curing time, and temperature can make AKD fully react with paper-based
surface groups and produce more hydrophobic groups on the surface
and inside of the filter paper, which can form paper-based microfluidic
sensors with clear boundaries and fast transmission speed at low cost
and high efficiency. The fabricated sensor is used for the fluorometric
determination of vitamin C (AA), NO2
–, and sunset yellow (SY) at the same time, and the limits of visual
detection by eyes are 6 mmol/L (NO2
–),
60 μmol/L (SY), and 40 mmol/L (AA). The mechanism of inkjet
printing is investigated in detail, which is simple, reliable, and
easy to realize mass production and can realize highly sensitive,
on-site, and visual detection for food additives.