Microfluidic flow injection thermal lens microscopy for high throughput and sensitive analysis of sub-μL samples

An analytical method combining microfluidic flow injection analysis (μFIA) with thermal lens microscopy (TLM) was developed for high throughput and sensitive analysis of sub-μL samples. Performance of the μFIA-TLM was validated for detection of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] in water samples. At different sample injection volumes, detection positions and flow rates, influences of the reaction time and the diffusion of Cr-diphenylcarbazone (DPCO) complexes on the μFIA-TLM signal were investigated. Photodegradation of the Cr-DPCO complex was clearly observed when the absorbed photons per Cr-DPCO is above 1600. After optimization of the TLM with respect to rapid flows (up to 10 cm/s), we achieved a limit of detection of 0.6 ng/mL for Cr(VI) in a 50-μm deep channel. Impacts of interfering ions [V(V), Mo(VI), Fe(III)] on the Cr(VI) determination were found to be small. Cr(VI) in real samples from a cement factory were determined and found in good agreement with results of spectrophotometry. This μFIA-TLM shows advantages over its conventional counterpart, such as eliminating additional sample conditioning, reducing over 100 times the sample consumption to sub-μL and over 10 times the time required for one sample injection to a few seconds (up to 20 samples/min). The optimized μFIA-TLM setup can be applied for fast and sensitive analysis of nonfluoresent sub-μL samples in rapidly flowing mediums