Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia 5042, Australia.
Chemistry Department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box 2014, Sakaka 72388, Saudi Arabia.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Jul 5;15(26):31114-31123. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c02353. Epub 2023 Jun 20.
Hydrogels have been widely used to entrap biomolecules for various biocatalytic reactions. However, solute diffusion in these matrices to initiate such reactions can be a very slow process. Conventional mixing remains a challenge as it can cause irreversible distortion or fragmentation of the hydrogel itself. To overcome the diffusion-limit, a shear-stress-mediated platform named the portable vortex-fluidic device (P-VFD) is developed. P-VFD is a portable platform which consists of two main components, (i) a plasma oxazoline-coated polyvinyl chloride (POx-PVC) film with polyacrylamide and alginate (PAAm/Alg-Ca) tough hydrogel covalently bound to its surface and (ii) a reactor tube (L × D: 90 mm × 20 mm) where the aforementioned POx-PVC film could be readily inserted for reactions. Through a spotting machine, the PAAm/Alg-Ca hydrogel can be readily printed on a POx-PVC film in an array pattern and up to 25.4 J/m adhesion energy can be achieved. The hydrogel arrays on the film not only offer a strong matrix for entrapping biomolecules such as streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase but are also shear stress-tolerant in the reactor tube, enabling a >6-fold increase in its reaction rate after adding tetramethylbenzidine, relative to incubation. Through using the tough hydrogel and its stably bonded substrate, this portable platform effectively overcomes the diffusion-limit and achieves fast assay detection without causing appreciable hydrogel array deformation or dislocation on the substrate film.
水凝胶已被广泛用于捕获生物分子以进行各种生物催化反应。然而，这些基质中的溶质扩散对于引发此类反应可能是一个非常缓慢的过程。传统的混合仍然是一个挑战，因为它可能导致水凝胶本身的不可逆变形或碎裂。为了克服扩散限制，开发了一种称为便携式涡旋流装置（P-VFD）的剪切应力介导平台。P-VFD 是一种由两个主要组件组成的便携式平台，（i）带有聚氧杂氮唑涂层的聚氯乙烯（POx-PVC）膜，其表面共价结合有聚丙烯酰胺和海藻酸钠（PAAm/Alg-Ca）坚韧水凝胶，以及（ii）一个反应管（L×D：90mm×20mm），可以将上述 POx-PVC 膜轻松插入其中进行反应。通过点胶机，可以将 PAAm/Alg-Ca 水凝胶以阵列图案轻松打印在 POx-PVC 膜上，可实现高达 25.4 J/m 的附着能。膜上水凝胶阵列不仅为捕获生物分子（如链霉亲和素-辣根过氧化物酶）提供了强大的基质，而且在反应管中也能耐受剪切应力，在添加四甲基联苯胺后，其反应速率相对于孵育可提高 6 倍以上。通过使用坚韧的水凝胶及其稳定结合的基底，该便携式平台有效地克服了扩散限制，实现了快速的检测，而不会导致基底膜上水凝胶阵列的明显变形或错位。
