Nanomaterials and lab-on-a-chip technologies

Abstract

Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) platforms have become important tools for sample analysis and treatment with interest for DNA, protein and cells studies or diagnostics due to benefits such as the reduced sample volume, low cost, portability and the possibility to build new analytical devices or be integrated into conventional ones. These platforms have advantages of a wide set of nanomaterials (NM) (i.e. nanoparticles, quantum dots, nanowires, graphene etc.) and offer excellent improvement in properties for many applications (i.e. detectors sensitivity enhancement, biolabelling capability along with other in-chip applications related to the specificities of the variety of nanomaterials with optical, electrical and/or mechanical properties). This review covers the last trends in the use of nanomaterials in microfluidic systems and the related advantages in analytical and bioanalytical applications. In addition to the applications of nanomaterials in LOCs, we also discuss the employment of such devices for the production and characterization of nanomaterials. Both framed platforms, NMs based LOCs and LOCs for NMs production and characterization, represent promising alternatives to generate new nanotechnology tools for point-of-care diagnostics, drug delivery and nanotoxicology applications.

Real‐Time Cellular Cytochrome C Monitoring through an Optical Microfiber: Enabled by a Silver‐Decorated Graphene Nanointerface

“…As widely employed in many electrochemical sensors,15, 16, 17, 42, 43, 44, 45 RGO with a partial planar structure and abundant oxygen‐containing functional groups provided a suitable platform (high surface area43 and more binding sites45) for aptamer immobilization by π–π interactions in this work 30. Simultaneously, slight changes in the charge environment of the RGO sheet arising from the binding of cyt c may result in an improved change in electronic characteristics,46 which sharpened the sensitivity of sensor.…”

Magnetic microreactors for efficient and reliable magnetic nanoparticle surface functionalization

“…Based on our previous work, we magnetically immobilized SPIONs in a microreactor using a high gradient permanent magnetic field 14 . Microfabricated systems for microreactions have been increasingly investigated in nanoand biotechnology because of the small volumes required 15,16 , the rapid heat exchange and mass transfer and the possibility to perform high-throughput experiments 17 . Thus, miniaturized systems have been designed for solid phase synthesis and analytical or sensing systems as they provide large surface and interface areas 16,17 .…”

Fabrication of Hydrophobic Nanostructured Surfaces for Microfluidic Control

“…[3][4][5][6] Studies of fluidic control using nanostructures are relatively new in the field of micro-and nanofluidics but have great potential to develop novel and useful fluidic devices. Recently, nanostructures as represented by nanopillars, nanowires and nanoholes have been assembled inside micro/nano channels, and applications such as separation of biomolecules 7,8 and biosensing 9,10 have been achieved. Furthermore, superhydrophobic surfaces [11][12][13] and slip flow 14,15 have been found to be induced by construction of nanostructures on surfaces of micro/nano channels.…”

“…On the other hand, in bottom-up fabrication methods, various kinds of nanostructures fabricated by electrodeposition, chemical vapor deposition, nanowire growth, nanoparticle assembly and so on, are integrated on the inner wall and surfaces of micro/nano channels. [8][9][10]13 However, these methods require complicated fabrication steps compared to the fabrication of simple micro/nano channels.…”