In situ molecular imaging of a hydrated biofilm in a microfluidic reactor by ToF-SIMS.

A novel microfluidic reactor for biofilm growth and in situ characterization using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was constructed to enable two-dimensional chemical imaging of hydrated biofilms. We demonstrate the detection of characteristic fatty acid fragments from microfluidic reactor-grown biofilms and illustrate advantages of hydrated-state ToF-SIMS imaging.