Gold(Working), Platinum (Counter) and Silver(Reference)Novel Lego®-Concepted Microfluidic Chip for Capillary Electrophoresis Separation, Electrochemical and Mass Spectrometry Detections

This work presents a novel LEGO®-concepted microfluidic chip for capillary electrophoresis, electrochemical and mass spectrometry detections (CE-EC-MS). A 3D-printed substrate equipped various detachable electrodes for applying the electric fields and electrochemical detection for CE-EC-MS. Therefore, the electrodes for the detection can be set on-demand for various kind of applications. Damage electrodes can also be exchanged independently without wasting the whole chip due to a single electrode damage. The LEGO electrodes are produced with 3D-printed ABS plastic in a mass production process. In combining the thread-based microfluidic system, the time and experimental setup for producing a CE-EC chip. The developed LEGO-concepted chip has shown nice cyclic voltammetry results for detecting standard samples of potassium ferricyanide and dopamine. The thread-based CE-EC results also confirmed that the LEGO chip exhibits low current drift of 0.4 μA. Moreover, a commercial energy drink of Red-Bull containing niacin, glucuronolactone, caffeine, biglycan, and pantothenic acid is successfully detected using the LEGO-concepted CE-EC-MS chip. The method developed in the present study provides a simple design for producing a novel renewable CE-EC-MS detection system.