PCB Technology-Based Electrochemiluminescence Microfluidic Device for Low-Cost Portable Analytical Systems

This paper presents the design of two configurations of electrodes ("gold versus Ag/AgCl" and "gold versus gold") and an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) microfluidic device fabricated in the inexpensive printed circuit board (PCB) technology. The PCB electrodes are electrochemically characterized to determine appropriate working potentials. The ECL microfluidic device with integrated PCB electrodes is tested using luminol as luminophore to quantify H₂O₂ concentrations. Synchronous detection technique is implemented for weak signal recovery. For both PCB electrode configurations, a 100 nM H₂O₂ concentration is detected and a linear range extending from 100 nM to 10 mM is observed with a photomultiplier tube. A lab-on-board compatible potentiostat and a compact CMOS photodetector module are also designed and validated. The proposed instrumental approach may represent a low-cost way to develop portable analytical systems.