Construction of CdSe/ZnS quantum dot microarray in a microfluidic chip

Microarray technology has been proved to be greatly helpful for biomedical and biological diagnosis. And the evaluation of its biological applications lies in the detection sensitivity, which requires high intensity and stability of the signal. Recently, several nanomaterials, especially semiconductor nanomaterials, due to their excellent fluorescence properties, have been widely used to construct microarrays for biosensors. Here, we presented an approach for constructing CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QD) microarray in microfluidic channels on a glass slide by photolithography. The conditions for immobilizing stable and uniform QD microarray on the glass slide were optimized. Several types of QD microarrays with different emission wavelengths and modified groups were constructed using silanization and lithography technology. Based on the fluorescence quenching effect of Cu2+ on QDs, the microfluidic chip with QD microarray was applied for the determination of Cu2+. 1 nmol/L Cu2+ could be detected by this method.