Bioactive microfluidic paper device for pesticide determination in waters

Abstract This work presents a new optical microfluidic paper biosensor for the detection of organophosphate pesticides and carbamate pesticides. The assay strip is composed of a paper support (1 × 17.6 mm) onto which acetylcholine esterase (AChE) and acetylcholine chloride (AChCl) are deposited, in such a way that there is a small hole between them that ensures that they only come into contact in the reaction zone when they are carried by a solution of the sample by lateral flow to the reaction zone containing bromocresol purple (BCP) as the pH indicator, immobilized by sol-gel. The sensor operates at room temperature and the rate of the inhibited reaction serves as an analytical signal, which is measured using a camera by quantifying the appropriate colour coordinate. Calibration curves were obtained for chlorpyrifos and carbaryl, with a useful concentration range from 0.24 to 20 μg L−1 for carbaryl and from 2.00 to 45 μg L−1 for chlorpyrifos. The detection limits were 0.24 and 2.00 μg L−1, respectively, and with reproducibility around 4.2–5.5%. The method was applied to the determination of pesticides in different water samples, with no sample preparation.