Plastified poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)-toner microfluidic chip by direct-printing integrated with electrochemical detection for pharmaceutical analysis.

Rapid separation and determination of acetaminophen and its hydrolysate with end-channel electrochemical (EC) detection integrated on a plastified poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)-toner microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) system was investigated. In this separation and detection system, a Pt ultramicroelectrode integrated on a three-dimensional adjustor was used as working electrode. Factors influencing the separation and detection were investigated and optimized. Results show that acetaminophen and p-aminophenol can be well separated within 84s with R.S.D.<1% for migration time and R.S.D.<3.6% for detection current for both analytes. Detection limits for both analytes are determined to be 5.0muM (S/N=3). This method has been successfully applied to the detection of trace p-aminophenol in paracetamol tablets. The results demonstrate that the PET-toner microchips can obtain better performance than PDMS microfluidic devices but at much lower cost.