Fabrication of a Grounded Electrodes Cell with Capacitively Coupled Contactless Conductivity Detection Technique in a Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis Application

Abstract

A novel Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis (MCE) device, for use with Capacitively Coupled Contactless Conductivity Detection (C4D) technique incorporating a 200 nm gold deposited pick-up electrodes on a Pyrex glass wafer is described. The PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) microchip was fabricated by the transfer print technique from an etched silicon wafer through a conventional lithography method. The PDMS was sealed by a 100 urn-thick bio-glass, coupled with a gold pick-up electrodes cell. A fully 3d-printed cartridge encloses all the essential parts, including PDMS chip and gold pick-up electrodes. The gold deposited pick-up electrodes cell with a grounded electrode feature were simulated and the results are presented. Preliminary comparison tests with Na ions and Aspirin have been investigated, with the results of the experiments demonstrating significant improvement in the signal/noise ratio with these novel designed MCE devices.