Smartphone-Based Pressure Signal Readout Device Combined with Bidirectional Immunochromatographic Test Strip for Dual-Analyte Detection

Pressure has been a facile signal readout mode for developing point-of-care testing devices due to the attractive features of portability, accessibility, rapidity, and affordability. Herein, a pressure signal readout device was designed by integrating two homemade needle-type piezoresistive transducers, a controller for a thin-film piezoresistive sensor and a smartphone. Meanwhile, a bidirectional immunochromatographic test strip was designed as an immunoreaction platform for dual-analyte detection. Using PdCuPt nanoparticles with catalase-mimic activity as signal tags, the pressure signals triggered by catalyzed aerogenous reaction were monitored by the pressure signal readout device and read on a smartphone with the Bluetooth module. In this proof-of-principle work, imidacloprid and carbendazim were detected as model analytes. The dynamic ranges for quantitating imidacloprid and carbendazim are 20 pg mL–1 to 50 ng mL–1 and 50 pg mL–1 to 50 ng mL–1, respectively. The whole immunoassay process was completed within 16 min. The recovery values for imidacloprid and carbendazim spiked into herbal medicines are 82.0–110.0 and 84.0–116.0%, respectively, verifying its reliability for real sample detection. As the smartphone APP and controller for a thin-film piezoresistive sensor contain 12 signal channels, the system can be easily extended to meet the demand for high-throughput screening.