Fabrication of microfluidic paper-based channels by inkjet printing process for analytical applications

Abstract Microfluidic paper-based channels play an important role in microfluidic paper-based analytical devices ( μ PADs). There are some fabrication methods which could be utilised to fabricate microfluidic channels on paper substrate. Among these methods, inkjet printing process is considered as a promising fabrication method with many advantages such as low-cost, material saving, high precision, etc. The aim of this work is to apply inkjet printing technology to fabricate paper channels of μ PADs. A new design of μ PAD was proposed in this paper to demonstrate how to fabricate inkjet-printed hydrophobic lines to make paper-based biosensor. Biological target of our μ PADs is human chOrionic gonadotropin (hCG). Colorimetric signals from μ PADs were captured by digital camera and measured by ImageJ software, which showed that these μ PADs can determine hCG in the range from 1,000 to 10,000 ng ml −1 . These results showed that piezoelectric inkjet printing technology can fabricate 250 μ m-width hydrophobic lines on paper substrate, helping in fabricating μ PADs in next applications.