title: Microfluidic Air Sampler for Highly Efficient Bacterial Aerosol Collection and Identification.
abstract: The early warning capability of the presence of biological aerosol threats is an urgent demand in ensuing civilian and military safety. Efficient and rapid air sample collection in relevant indoor or outdoor environment is a key step for subsequent analysis of airborne microorganisms. Herein, we report a portable battery-powered sampler that is capable of highly efficient bioaerosol collection. The essential module of the sampler is a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip, which consisted of a 3-loop double-spiral microchannel featuring embedded herringbone and sawtooth wave-shaped structures. Vibrio parahemolyticus (V. parahemolyticus) as a model microorganism, was initially employed to validate the bioaerosol collection performance of the device. Results showed that the sampling efficacy reached as high as >99.9%. The microfluidic sampler showed greatly improved capturing efficiency compared with traditional plate sedimentation methods. The high performance of our device was attributed to the horizontal inertial centrifugal force and the vertical turbulence applied to airflow during sampling. The centrifugation field and turbulence were generated by the specially designed herringbone structures when air circulated in the double-spiral microchannel. The sawtooth wave-shaped microstructure created larger specific surface area for accommodating more aerosols. Furthermore, a mixture of bacterial aerosols formed by V. parahemolyticus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli was extracted by the microfluidic sampler. Subsequent integration with mass spectrometry conveniently identified the multiple bacterial species captured by the sampler. Our developed stand-alone and cable-free sampler shows clear advantages comparing with conventional strategies, including portability, easy-to-use, and low cost, indicating great potential in future field applications.
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University , Shanghai 201306, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University , Shanghai 201306, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University , Shanghai 201306, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Division of Engineering in Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
authors.forename: Yu Shrike
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, P. R. China.|Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University , 131 Dongan Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Baohong
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, P. R. China.|Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University , 131 Dongan Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Pengyuan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University , Shanghai 201306, P. R. China.|Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University , 131 Dongan Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Weijia
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, P. R. China.|Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University , 131 Dongan Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qiao
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000032:analysis; D000391:Air Microbiology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry*; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; D014736:Vibrio parahaemolyticus / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols