Integrated silicon microfluidic chip for picoliter-scale analyte segmentation and microscale printing for mass spectrometry imaging
Weihua Shi, Sara E. Bell, Hrishikesh Iyer, Christopher Kenji Brenden, Yan Zhang, Sungho Kim, Insu Park, Rashid Bashir, Jonathan V. Sweedler, Yurii A. Vlasov
Abstract
A silicon single-chip microfluidics system that integrates microscale fluidic channels, an analyte segmentation device, and a nozzle for electrohydrodynamic-assisted printing is designed for hyphenation with MALDI mass spectrometry (MS) imaging. A miniaturized T-junction segments analytes into monodisperse picoliter oil-isolated compartments. The printing nozzle deposits generated droplets one-by-one into an array on a conductive substrate without splitting or coalescing. Virtually single-shot MS analysis is enabled due to the ultrasmall droplet volumes and highly localized printing. The signal-to-noise ratio indicates that detection limits at the attomole level are achieved for γ-aminobutyric acid.