Comparison of some modern IT equipment as detectors for microfluidic paper-based determination of phosphate

Abstract

Modern Information Technology (IT) and communications equipment (mobiles phones, scanners, etc) may all be used as image capture devices for paper-based colorimetric analysis. This paper evaluates the use of a mobile phone, a webcam, a flatbed scanner and a handheld scanner as image capture devices for colorimetric determination of reactive phosphate using microfluidic paper-based analytical devices as the analytical platform. All four image capture devices tested gave similar analytical sensitivity and limits of detection (0.5-0.6 mg L-1 as P), although the handheld scanner and webcam exhibited non-linear responses over the range of concentrations tested, making them less suitable for field..