Microfluidic chip based chemiluminescence detection of L-phenylalanine in pharmaceutical and soft drinks

A sensitive chemiluminescence (CL) method on chip coupled with microfluidic system has been reported for the determination of L-phenylalanine (L-PA). A microfluidic chip device with the detection chamber capable of fast sensing light emitted from the luminol and hydrogen peroxide CL reaction catalyzed by copper sulphate was fabricated for the determination of L-PA. The microfluidic chip was fabricated by a soft-lithographic procedure using polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS). The fabricated PDMS microfluidic chip had four inlet microchannels for introducing the sample, chemiluminescent reagent, Cu(II), and oxidant, and a 500 μm wide, 250 μm deep, and 82 mm long microchannel. The detection was based on the enhancement effect of L-PA on the CL signals of luminol–H2O2–Cu2+ system in an alkaline medium. The CL intensity of the system was enhanced linearly with the concentration of L-PA in the range of 1.5 × 10−9–1.2 × 10−7 mol L−1. The limit of detection was found to be 2.4 × 10−10 mol L−1 with the relative standard deviation of 1.8%. The presented method offers a simple, rapid and easy to handle analytical technique in terms of sensitivity, dynamic range and low detection limit for the determination of L-PA in diet soft drinks and pharmaceutical injection samples.