Environmental pollution remains a major societal problem, leading to serious impacts on living organisms including humans. Human activities such as civilization, urbanization, and industrialization are major causes of pollution. Imposing stricter rules helps control environmental pollutant levels, creating a need for reliable pollutant monitoring in air, water, and soil. The application of traditional analytical techniques is limited in low-resource areas because they are sophisticated, expensive, and bulky. With the development of biosensors and microfluidics technology, environmental monitoring has significantly improved the analysis time, low cost, portability, and ease of use. This review discusses the fundamentals of portable devices, including microfluidics and biosensors, for environmental control. Recently, publications reviewing microfluidics and biosensor device applications have increased more than tenfold, showing the potential of emerging novel approaches for environmental monitoring. Strategies for enzyme-, immunoassay-, and molecular-based analyte sensing are discussed based on their mechanisms and applications. Microfluidic and biosensor platforms for detecting major pollutants, including metal ions, pathogens, pesticides, and antibiotic residues, are reviewed based on their working principles, advantages, and disadvantages. Challenges and future trends for the device design and fabrication process to improve performance are discussed. Miniaturization, low cost, selectivity, sensitivity, high automation, and savings in samples and reagents make the devices ideal alternatives for in-field detection, especially in low-resource areas. However, their operation with complicated environmental samples requires further research to improve the specificity and sensitivity. Although there is a wide range of devices available for environmental applications, their implementation in real-world situations is limited. This study provides insights into existing issues that can be used as references and a comparative analysis for future studies and applications.
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September 2024
Review Article|
September 04 2024
Recent advances in portable devices for environmental monitoring applications
Thi Ngoc Diep Trinh
;
Thi Ngoc Diep Trinh
(Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
Department of Materials Science, School of Applied Chemistry, Tra Vinh University
, Tra Vinh City 87000, Vietnam
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Nguyen Khoi Song Tran
;
Nguyen Khoi Song Tran
(Methodology, Writing – review & editing)
2
NTT Hi-Tech Institute, Nguyen Tat Thanh University
, Ward 13, District 04, Ho Chi Minh City 70000, Vietnam
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Hanh An Nguyen
;
Hanh An Nguyen
(Methodology, Writing – review & editing)
3
Department of Molecular Biology, Institute of Food and Biotechnology, Can Tho University
, Can Tho City, Vietnam
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Nguyen Minh Chon
;
Nguyen Minh Chon
(Visualization, Writing – original draft)
3
Department of Molecular Biology, Institute of Food and Biotechnology, Can Tho University
, Can Tho City, Vietnam
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Kieu The Loan Trinh
;
Kieu The Loan Trinh
a)
(Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
4
BioNano Applications Research Center, Gachon University
, 1342 Seongnam-daero, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 13120, Republic of Korea
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Nae Yoon Lee
Nae Yoon Lee
a)
(Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing)
5
Department of BioNano Technology, Gachon University
, 1342 Seongnam-daero, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 13120, Republic of Korea
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Biomicrofluidics 18, 051501 (2024)
Article history
Received:
June 20 2024
Accepted:
August 20 2024
Citation
Thi Ngoc Diep Trinh, Nguyen Khoi Song Tran, Hanh An Nguyen, Nguyen Minh Chon, Kieu The Loan Trinh, Nae Yoon Lee; Recent advances in portable devices for environmental monitoring applications. Biomicrofluidics 1 September 2024; 18 (5): 051501. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0224217
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