Traditional methods and biosensors for detecting disinfection by-products in water: A review.

In recent years, pollution caused by disinfection by-products (DBPs) has become a global concern. Initially, there were fewer contaminants, and the mechanism of their generation was unclear; however, the number of contaminants has increased exponentially as a result of rapid industrialization and numerous economic activities (e.q., during the outbreak of COVID-19 a surge in the use of chlorinated disinfectants was observed). DBP toxicity results in various adverse health effects and organ failure in humans. In addition, it profoundly affects other forms of life, including animals, plants, and microorganisms. This review comprehensively discusses the pre-treatment methods of traditional and emerging DBPs and the technologies applied for their detection. Additionally, this paper provides a detailed discussion of the principles, applicability, and characteristics of traditional large-scale instrumentation methods (such as gas/liquid/ion chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry) for detecting DBPs based on their respective detection techniques. At the same time, the design, functionality, classification, and characteristics of rapid detection technologies (such as biosensors) are also detailed and analyzed.

Microfluidic Device for Cell Trapping with Carbon Electrodes Using Dielectrophoresis.

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) devices have proven to be one of the most promising tools to transport, accumulate and sort various cells and particles. The major challenge in the development of DEP devices is the high cost, low yield using Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In this paper, we demonstrate a facile, low-cost, and high-throughput method of constructing continuous-flow DEP devices using screen-printing technology. Much literature has concluded that the use of carbon electrodes provides more cost effective and more durable DEP devices than metal electrodes. More efficient devices not only need to be constructed from a low cost material but also from an inexpensive fabrication technique. In this study, we used yeast cells as model cells to perform a comparative study on trapping efficiency of carbon and gold electrode DEP devices. We have proposed, the sealing of carbon DEP device with glass, instead of PDMS, using adhesive bonding technique which not only reduce the leakage problem but also increases the device performance. We also report the biocompatibility analysis of carbon paste and the results indicates its usefulness in eventual studies involving carbon-MEMS devices.