Microchip capillary electrophoresis with solid-state electrochemiluminescence detector

We report microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupling to a solid-state electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detector. The solid-state ECL detector was fabricated by immobilizing tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) (TBR) into an Eastman AQ55D-silica-carbon nanotube composite thin film on an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode. After being made by a photolithographic method, the surface of the ITO electrode was coated with a thin composite film through a micromolding in capillary (MIMIC) technique using a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microchannel with the same pattern as an ITO electrode. Then the TBR was immobilized via ion exchange by immersing the ITO electrode containing the thin film in TBR aqueous solution. The whole system was built by reversibly sealing the TBR-modified ITO electrode plate with a PDMS layer containing electrophoresis microchannels. The results indicated that the present solid-state ECL detector displayed good durability and stability in the microchip CE-ECL system. Proline was selected to perform the microchip device with a limit of detection of 2 microM (S/N=3) and a linear range from 25 to 1000 microM. Compared with the CE-ECL of TBR in aqueous solution, while the CE microchip with solid-state ECL detector system gave the same sensitivity of analysis, a much lower TBR consumption and a high integration of the whole system were obtained. The present system was also used for medicine analysis.