Design and preparation of centrifugal microfluidic chip integrated with SERS detection for rapid diagnostics

Abstract

A microfluidic SERS chip integrated with blood separation and in-situ detection was designed and fabricated for the rapid detection of clinical blood samples. Each functional unit in the microfluidic SERS chip consist of separation-decantation cavity based on centrifugal separation principle, mixing channels and SERS detection chamber built with integrated nano-Au on Ag film microstructure. The serum creatinine was selected as a typical sample to demonstrate the capability of microfluidic SERS chip. It was found that the creatinine SERS characteristic peaks at 678 cm^-1 can be effectively identified and the detection limit could be as low as 4.42 × 10^-3 μmol mL^-1 in water. The blood samples were also tested in microfluidic SERS chip. The whole separation and test process could be completed within 2 min, which is a significant improvement in the field of creatinine detection. The whole blood of six cases clinical blood samples were also tested, and the results were consistent with the enzymatic results. The developed microfluidic SERS chip has advantages including reduction of the required quantity of blood sample, reusable and easy to operate. It is expected to provide a new method for rapid diagnostics.

Keywords: Ag film@nano-Au substrate; Blood separation; Centrifugal microfluidic chip; Rapid diagnostics; Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).