Rapid detection of formaldehyde concentration in food on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip

A rapid and simple technique was developed for detecting formaldehyde with very small amount of sample by using heated PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) microfluidic chip, which has four reaction reservoirs and one substrate reservoir. The mixture of the sample and the substrate in the reaction reservoirs was illuminated by 410 nm violet light and the absorption rate was detected to calculate formaldehyde content in food sample. Formaldehyde in eight different food samples of 2 mu l volume was determined within one minute. The main advantages of this method are rapid, small sample size, high selectivity, low-cost and multi-sample detection. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.