A Poly(arylene ethynylene)-Based Microfluidic Fluorescence Sensor Array for Discrimination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are mainly byproducts of incomplete combustion of coal/petroleum and pyrolysis of organic components. These components are listed as priority pollutants by the European Union and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency due to carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, and mutagenicity. Hence, the identification and monitoring of PAHs as a worldwide concern has attracted great attention among researchers [1]. Recently, microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPAD) have shown the high potential of paper as a substrate material in microfluidic technology it is easy to access, cheap, and chemically compatible for many applications [2]. Here, a simple microfluidic fluorescence paper-based sensor array designed for the rapid detection and simultaneous classification of ten PAHs (naphthalene (Nap), anthracene (Ant), phenanthrene (Phe), fluorene (Fl), pyrene (Py), acenaphthene (Ace), chrysene (Chry), benzo[a]anthracene (BaA), benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), fluoranthene (Fla)) using poly(arylene ethylene)s as sensing elements. Fluorescence intensity changes of the sensor array were recorded using a smartphone (irradiated by a UV lamp of 366 nm) and then linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is used as a pattern recognition method, analyzing the discrimination performance of the sensing array. This method offered accurate discrimination of 10 different PAHs at various concentrations in a range of 5-100 mgL-1. 10 different PAHs were correctly identified using linear discrimination analysis. 100% classification accuracy was achieved for model training, validating LDA model by cross-validation resulted in 90% classification accuracy for 5 mg L-1.