Fabrication of disposable microextraction analytical tool for detection of bacterial pathogen using volatile metabolites emission.

A disposable paper-based thin film solid-phase microextraction (TF-SPME) patch was developed for the detection of bacterial pathogen. The study was based on the extraction of volatile organic compounds from the bacterial culture medium by a nanoparticle blended polymer-coated microextraction patch and then analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify the volatile metabolic signature associated with the bacterial pathogen during the growth phase of the bacterial species in the culture medium. The TF-SPME patches were fabricated using a divinylbenzene/multiwall carbon nanotube/polydimethylsiloxane coating mixture employing a film applicator for uniform coating on a regular cellular paper substrate. The coated sheet was dried and trimmed into multiple small-dimension sampling patches before exposure to the bacterial solution. To check the eco-friendliness of the proposed technique in terms of green analytical chemistry, the 'Blue Applicability Grade Index' (BAGI) was determined to be around 62.5, suggesting the feasibility of considering the proposed analytical method as a green sample preparation approach for clinical application. Therefore, this technique utilizing the TF-SPME patches may be utilized as an alternative and rapid method for the identification of bacterial pathogens as an alternative to the traditional prolonged culture-based study. Furthermore, the microextraction patch is disposable and easy to fabricate, suggesting the feasibility of utilizing it as a pathological sampling kit for the characterization of bacterial pathogen.