Researchers at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) and Chungnam National University have developed a microfluidic chip that extracts and analyzes pollutants such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and carbamazepine directly from solid-containing samples – without prior filtration or other pretreatment. The work was published as a cover article in the journal ACS Sensors.

Traditional methods for analyzing environmental, drinking water, or food samples usually require several steps: removal of solids through filtration, extraction, and enrichment. In the case of cloudy samples, however, filtration can remove trace substances or falsify the results. The new chip uses a “trap”-based architecture: a small droplet of extraction remains trapped in a microchamber while the sample flows continuously through an adjacent channel. Target molecules diffuse selectively in the droplets, solid particles such as sand pass through unhindered.

After extraction, the droplet can be removed and analyzed directly, for example using HPLC. The researchers demonstrated its effectiveness: PFOA was extracted from artificial wastewater within five minutes and detected. Carbamazepine, a residue from pharmaceuticals, could be isolated and identified directly from a sand-containing slurry.

The compact, automatable system significantly reduces analysis time, solvent consumption and potential sources of error. It is particularly suitable for on-site monitoring of environmental pollution, food safety and pharmaceutical residues – such as PFAS (“forever chemicals”), which are subject to stricter limits worldwide.

The development represents a practice-relevant advance in analytical chemistry. The trap approach solves a real problem of cloudy matrices elegantly through targeted diffusion and avoids particle disturbances. Strengths lie in its high selectivity, short extraction time, low resource consumption and the potential for portable or field-ready devices. The relevance is high for the monitoring of regulated contaminants such as PFAS and drug residues, especially in regions with limited laboratory equipment.

Original paper:

Trap-Based Microfluidic Device with Retrievable Droplet for the Analysis of Pollutants from Slurry Solutions | ACS Sensors

Editor: X-Press Journalistenbüro GbR

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