Integration of the Cleanup Process: Pretreatment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Diesel Exhaust Particles on Silica Gel Beads in a Microchannel

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated microfluidic system that performs cleanup for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from diesel exhaust particles on silica gel beads in a microchip. A column chromatography phase was constructed by filling the silica gel beads into a microchannel that had a dam structure 25 microm high. The height of the dam structure was determined according to the rate of the wet etching. This work on the cleanup of PAHs from diesel exhaust particles showed that the microchip-based system has the same performance as the conventional method on the solid phase extraction column and has some advantages, such as less reagent consumption and shorter pretreatment time, over the conventional method.