Optofluidic Platform for Rapid On-Chip Analysis of Total Phosphorus in Surface Water Using Absorption Spectrometry

Abstract

Optofluidic devices are of high interest for online monitoring and analyzing biochemical targets in water by integrating the complex on-chip pretreatment of target analytes and spectral analysis. Compared with the traditional bulk equipment, versatile optical detection and biochemical analysis are more easily integrated on an optofluidic chip, which promotes the development of on-chip real-time rapid detection and monitoring. Here, we report an optofluidic platform for online monitoring total phosphorous in water by absorption spectrometry, which naturally combines the merits of both the photo-Fenton effect and microfluidics to realize the rapid on-chip digestion of phosphate at room temperature and normal pressure. The functional cells for chromogenic reaction and optical absorption detection are, respectively, fabricated on the platform to analyze the content of total phosphorus in surface water. In the experiment, the on-chip digestion time of phosphate is dramatically declined to 8.6 sec, and thus, the detection time is greatly shortened to a few minutes. The detection range of total phosphorus is demonstrated as 0.005–1.00 mg L⁻¹, which satisfies the detection requirements of most environmental water samples. Its availability for measuring the total phosphorous in real water samples is also verified. Predictably, this platform is adapted to on-chip analysis of many other biochemical targets in water.