Fully 3D-Printed Preconcentrator for Selective Extraction of Trace Elements in Seawater

Abstract

In this study, we used a stereolithographic 3D printing technique and polyacrylate polymers to manufacture a solid phase extraction preconcentrator for the selective extraction of trace elements and the removal of unwanted salt matrices, enabling accurate and rapid analyses of trace elements in seawater samples when combined with a quadrupole-based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. To maximize the extraction efficiency, we evaluated the effect of filling the extraction channel with ordered cuboids to improve liquid mixing. Upon automation of the system and optimization of the method, the device allowed highly sensitive and interference-free determination of Mn, Ni, Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb, with detection limits comparable with those of most conventional methods. The system's analytical reliability was further confirmed through analyses of reference materials and spike analyses of real seawater samples. This study suggests that 3D printing can be a powerful tool for building multilayer fluidic manipulation devices, simplifying the construction of complex experimental components, and facilitating the operation of sophisticated analytical procedures for most sample pretreatment applications.

Chemical and biochemical analysis on lab-on-a-chip devices fabricated using three-dimensional printing

“…The analytical feasibility of the proposed devices was successfully demonstrated for direct spray ionization-MS analysis of ballpoint pen inks, caffeine, xylose and lysozyme. To prove the concept that a 3D printed device can be operated using its intrinsic chemical functionality, Su and coworkers fabricated a fully printed solid phase extraction preconcentrator [67]. As-prepared device could be as a universal interface for the selective extraction of trace elements from seawater samples and their accurate and rapid analyses when combined with a conventional quadrupole inductively coupled plasma MS system.…”

“…2A) [47,66,67]. It allows for automated creation of complicated 3D architectures in photoactive polymeric materials at low to medium volume throughputs.…”

“…Furthermore, it was capable of integrating all the analytical stages commonly conducted in a laboratory, including sample pre-treatment, reagent transmission, mixing, reaction, separation, and determination [57,60,69,92]. There is an emerging tendency of constructing new analytical methods for use with 3D printing chip devices, such as, colorimetric method [78,[93][94][95][96], electrochemical (EC) method [22,73,97], chemiluminesce (CL) method [61,98], electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method [31,77], mass spectrometry (MS) analysis [59,67], and fluorescence method [70,92].…”

Methacrylate Polymer Monoliths for Separation Applications

“…Methacrylate monoliths have also been fabricated within microfluidic devices or channels; for example, in polymer High Internal Phase Emulsion (polyHIPE) separation columns [53] and in monolithic pre-concentration devices [54,55]. The integration of methacrylate and other monolithic materials into microfluidic devices has benefited both analyte separation and pre-concentration in modular microfluidics as the quest for the miniaturization of chromatographic devices continues [41,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70].…”

“…Common species investigated using this type of SPE material include; pharma compounds [120,121], PAHs [122,123], chloro-phenols [122], dyes [41], herbicides [124], metal ions [54,125] and basic compounds such as caffeine [126]. The implementation of methacrylate monoliths in microfluidic chips for on-chip SPE has also been investigated [127].…”