Microfluidic device for compositional analysis of solvent systems at microwave frequencies

A device for analysing the chemical composition of single- and multi-phase solvent flows using microfluidic dielectric spectroscopy is demonstrated in this work. An open-circuited, half-wavelength, coaxial resonator operating at microwave frequencies (i.e. harmonics of 600 MHz) was embedded in a compression-sealed polytetrafluoroethylene microfluidic chip for in situ characterization of solvent-solvent and solute-solvent mixtures of varying concentration, and an aqueous-organic segmented flow. Results are shown for a solvent mixture of acetonitrile in toluene as a test system, exhibiting a sensitivity limit of 400 nM. In addition to being highly sensitive, the measurement system is fast, robust and non-invasive, and can be readily miniaturized. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.