Paper membrane-based SERS platform for the determination of glucose in blood samples.

Abstract

In this report, we present a paper membrane-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform for the determination of blood glucose level using a nitrocellulose membrane as substrate paper, and the microfluidic channel was simply constructed by wax-printing method. The rod-shaped gold nanorod particles were modified with 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (4-MBA) and 1-decanethiol (1-DT) molecules and used as embedded SERS probe for paper-based microfluidics.The SERS measurement area was simply constructed by dropping gold nanoparticles on nitrocellulose membrane, and the blood sample was dropped on the membrane hydrophilic channel. While the blood cells and proteins were held on nitrocellulose membrane, glucose molecules were moved through the channel towardthe SERS measurement area. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to confirm the effective separation of blood matrix, and total analysis is completed in 5min. In SERS measurements, theintensity of the band at 1070cm(-1) which is attributed to B-OH vibration decreased depending on the rise in glucose concentration in the blood sample. The glucose concentration was found to be 5.43 ± 0.51mM in the reference blood sample by usinga calibration equation, and the certified value for glucose was 6.17 ± 0.11mM. The recovery of the glucose in the reference blood sample was about 88%. According to these results,the developed paper-based microfluidic SERS platform has been found to be suitable for use for the detection of glucose in blood samples without any pretreatment procedure. We believe that paper-based microfluidic systems may provide a wide field of usage for paper-based applications.