Nanofiltration and sensing of picomolar chemical residues in aqueous solution using an optical porous resonator in a microelectrofluidic channel.

For the first time the use of a porous microresonator placed in a microelectrofluidic system for integrated functions of nanofiltration and sensing of small biomolecules and chemical analytes in extremely dilute solution was proposed and investigated. As an example, aminoglycosides in drug residues in food and livestock products were considered as the trace chemical analyte. The filtration process of the charged analyte in aqueous solution driven by an applied electrical field and the accompanying optical whispering-gallery modes in the resonator are modeled. The dynamic process of adsorption and desorption of the analyte onto the porous matrix is studied. Deposition of the analyte inside the porous structure will alter the material refractive index of the resonator, and thus induce an optical resonance frequency shift. By measuring the optical frequency shift, the analyte concentration as well as the absorption/desorption process can be analyzed. Through an intensive numerical study, a correlation between the frequency shift and the analyte concentration and the applied electrical voltage gradient was obtained. This reveals a linear relationship between the resonance frequency shift and the analyte concentration. The applied electrical voltage substantially enhances the filtration capability and the magnitude of the optical frequency shift, pushing the porous resonator-based sensor to function at the extremely dilute picomolar concentration level for small bio/chemical molecules down to the sub-nanometer scale. Moreover, use of the second-order whispering-gallery mode is found to provide better sensitivity compared with the first-order mode.