Responsive photonic encoded breathing microbeads based microfluidic chip for multiplex fluorescent immunoassay

Abstract

Suspension array attracted much attention around the world because of its benefits in simultaneous analysis of multiple targets. Photonic crystal encoded beads array was a type of optical encoded suspension array technology. Microbead with opal structure, named as silica colloidal crystal beads (SCCBs), was the most frequently used carrier in immunoassay previously, while microbead with inverse opal structure was used in molecular imprinting assay or label-free detection. However, inverse opal structure makes microcarrier to have larger specific surface area; and such structure makes microcarrier to have transformable dimension. With both characteristics, inverse opal structure microbead is more competent for fluorescent immunoassay compared with SCCB. Here a solvent responsive photonic encoded microbead with inverse opal structure, also named as responsive breathing microbead, was prepared, and simultaneously integrated with a special designed microfluidic chip, its excellent performance in multiplex fluorescent immunoassay was presented.