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Anal Chem 2022 Jun 22. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

State Key Lab of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is a widely applied classic method for material characterization. However, the existing TGA method has reached its technical ceiling in regard to its sensitivity, efficiency, application scope, and extensibility. With temperature-programming and a picogram (10 g) mass resoluble measurement function, an integrated resonant microcantilever is proposed and developed into micro-electromechanical system-based TGA (MEMS TGA) technology to satisfy the significantly higher TGA requirements. Read More

Anal Chem 2022 Jun 2;94(23):8105-8109. Epub 2022 Jun 2.

Department of Material Science and Engineering and NUANCE Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.

New platforms for the rapid and sensitive detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern are urgently needed. Here we report the development of a nanomechanical sensor based on the deflection of a microcantilever capable of detecting the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein antigen using computationally designed multivalent minibinders immobilized on a microcantilever surface. The sensor exhibits rapid (<5 min) detection of the target antigens down to concentrations of 0. Read More

Nano Res 2022 May 19:1-13. Epub 2022 May 19.

CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Material, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027 China.

The massive global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic makes the development of more effective and easily popularized assays critical. Here, we developed an ultrasensitive nanomechanical method based on microcantilever array and peptide nucleic acid (PNA) for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA. The method has an extremely low detection limit of 0. Read More

Nano Lett 2022 04 11;22(8):3196-3203. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.

A resonant microcantilever sensor is fabricated from a zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film, which serves as both the structural and sensing layers. An open-air spatial atomic layer deposition technique is used to deposit the ZnO layer to achieve a ∼200 nm thickness, an order of magnitude lower than the thicknesses of conventional microcantilever sensors. The reduction in the number of layers, in the cantilever dimensions, and its overall lower mass lead to an ultrahigh sensitivity, demonstrated by detection of low humidity levels. Read More

Micromachines (Basel) 2022 Mar 16;13(3). Epub 2022 Mar 16.

State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.

Combined use of thermal analysis techniques can realize complementarity of different characterization methods. Comprehensive thermal analysis with both thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA) can measure not only mass change of a sample but also its temperature change during programmed heating-induced reaction or phase transition processes, thereby obtaining multiaspect thermal information of the material such as dehydration, structural decomposition, phase change and thermal stability. This study proposes and develops a MEMS chip-based TG/DTA microsystem that integrates both programmed heating and detecting elements into a TG chip and a DTA chip to enable the microinstrument performing TG/DTA joint characterization under microscope observation. Read More