Covalently Modified Molecular-Recognition-Capable UV-Transparent Microplate for Ultra-High-Throughput Screening of Dissolved Zn and Pb.

Zn has a crucial role both in biology and the environment, while Pb presents serious hazards in the same areas due to its toxicity, and the need for their analysis often exceeds available instrumental capacity. We report, herein, a new high-throughput optochemical screening method for Zn and Pb in various solutions. Moreover, we also introduced a new and generalizable three-step-microplate-modification technique, including plasma treating, linker-docking and photocatalytic copolymerization. The surface of a commercially available 96-well-cycloolefin-microplate was treated with atmospheric plasma, and then, the bottoms of the wells were covered by covalently attaching a methacrylate-containing linker-monolayer. Finally, the preactivated microplate wells were covalently functionalized by immobilizing bis(acridino)-crown ether-type sensor molecules, via photocatalytic copolymerization, to a polymethacrylate backbone. This sensing tool can be used in all microplate readers, is compatible with liquid handling platforms and provides an unprecedently fast monitoring (>1000 samples/hour, extrapolated from the time required for 96 measurements) of dissolved Zn and Pb among recent alternatives above the detection limits of 8.0 × 10 and 3.0 × 10 mol/L, respectively, while requiring a sample volume of only 20 µL.