Quartz crystal Microbalance with dissipation monitoring for biomedical applications: Open source and low cost prototype with active temperature control

G.G. MUÑOZ; M.J. MILLICOVSKY; J.M. RETA; J.I. CERRUDO; A. PEÑALVA; M. MACHTEY; R.M TORRES; M.A. ZALAZAR

HarwareX

Elsevier Ltd.

Año: 2023 vol. 14

2468-0672

Advances in sensors have revolutionized the biomedical engineering field, having an extreme affinity for specific analytes also providing an effective, real-time, point-of-care testing for an accurate diagnosis. Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) is a well-established sensor that has been successfully applied in a broad range of applications to monitor and explore various surface interactions, in situ thin-film formations, and layer properties. This technology has gained interest in biomedical applications since novel QCM systems are able to work in liquid media. QCM with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) is an expanded version of a QCM that measures changes in damping properties of adsorbed layers thus providing information on its viscoelastic nature. In this article, an open source and low cost QCM-D prototype for biomedical applications was developed. In addition, the system was validated using different Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) concentrations due to its importance for many medical applications. The statistics show a bigger dissipation of the system as the fluid becomes more viscous, also having a very acceptable sensibility when temperature is controlled.