Sample preconcentration in microfluidic devices

Microfluidic systems have attracted considerable attention and have experienced rapid growth in the past two decades due to advantages associated with miniaturization, integration, and automation. Poor detection sensitivities mainly attributed to the small dimensions of these lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices; however, sometimes can greatly hinder their practical applications in detecting low-abundance analytes, particularly those in bio-samples. Although off-chip sample pretreatment strategies can be used to address this problem prior to analysis, they may introduce contaminants or lead to an undesirable loss of some original sample volume. Moreover, they are often time-consuming and labor-intensive. Toward the goals of automation, improvement in analytical efficiency, and reductions in sample loss and contamination, many on-chip sample preconcentration techniques based on different working principles for improving the detection sensitivity have been developed and implemented in microchips. The aim of this article is to review recent works in microchip-based sample preconcentration techniques and give detailed discussions about these techniques. We start with a brief introduction regarding the importance of preconcentration techniques in microfluidics and the classification of these techniques based on their concentration mechanisms, followed by in-depth discussions of about these techniques. Finally, personal perspectives on microfluidic-based sample preconcentration will be provided. These advancements in microfluidic sample preconcentration techniques may provide promising strategies for improving the detection sensitivities of LOC devices in many practical applications.