RESUMO
In this work, a novel generator of gas mixtures previously numerically investigated and based on axial gas pulses coupled to a micromixer has been conceived, manufactured, and validated. Standard gaseous pollutant mixtures and pure nitrogen or pure air were introduced in a microdevice designed to generate alternating axial gas pulses which were downstream homogenized by means of a multi-stage modular micromixer. The dilution, and therefore the final pollutant concentration, was controlled by two parameters: the ratio between the times of each of the two gas pulses and the partial pressure of the pollutant(s) mixture added to the device. The gas mixture generator was coupled to an analyzer to monitor the concentration of aromatic pollutants. The response time was optimized to be lower than 2 min in accordance with the analytical instrument. The quantity of pollutants measured at the micromixer's outlet increased linearly with the expected gas concentration of 3.7-100 ppb generated by this novel microfluidic generator and fitted perfectly with those obtained by a reference gas dilution bench. At 5 ppb, the precision on the concentration generated is close to that obtained with the conventional gas mixing bench, i.e., around 10%.
RESUMO
This paper describes a compact microfluidic analytical device developed for the detection of low airborne formaldehyde concentrations. This microdevice was based on a three-step analysis, i.e., the passive gaseous formaldehyde uptake using a microporous membrane into an acetylacetone solution, the derivatization with acetylacetone to form 3,5-diacetyl-1,4-dihydrolutidine, and the quantification of the latter using fluorescence detection. For a rapid and easier implementation, a cylindrical geometry of the microporous element was considered to perform laboratory-controlled experiments with known formaldehyde concentrations and to establish the proof of concept. This work reports the evaluation of the uptake performance according to the microporous tube length, the liquid flow rate inside the tube, the gas flow rate outside the tube, and the gaseous formaldehyde concentration. A 10.0 cm microporous tube combined with a gas flow rate of 250 NmL/min (normal milliliters per minute) and a liquid flow rate of 17 µL/min were found to be the optimized conditions. In these experimental conditions, the fluorescence signal increased linearly with the gaseous formaldehyde concentration in the range 0-118 µg/m3, with the detection limit being estimated as 0.13 µg/m3 when considering a signal-to-noise ratio of 3.
RESUMO
This paper is focused on the improvement of a microfluidic analytical method for the detection of low airborne formaldehyde concentrations, based on only two distinct steps permitting to reduce the response time and to improve the compactness of the device. First, gaseous formaldehyde is trapped into an acetylacetone solution at 65°C through an annular liquid/gas flow and reacts immediately to form 3,5-Diacetyl-1,4-dihydrolutidine which is then quantified by colorimetry using a liquid core waveguide (LCW). To obtain an annular flow, 3 different hydrophilic silica capillaries of 320, 450 and 530µm ID were tested and the corresponding phase diagrams were obtained in the ranges of liquid and gas flows of 5-35µLmin-1 and 5-35mLmin-1 respectively. Finally, the analytical performances were determined using the lowest flow values of 5µLmin-1 and 5NmLmin-1, ensuring an annular flow and increasing the microdevice autonomy. If the uptake yield of gaseous formaldehyde into the solution was close to 100%, only the 530µm ID capillary permits to obtain a reaction time long enough for a full conversion of formaldehyde into 3,5-Diacetyl-1,4-dihydrolutidine. With a LCW pathlength of 5cm, the microdevice response was perfectly linear in the range 0-154µgm-3 with a detection limit of 1.8µgm-3.