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

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

HardwareX

Elsevier Ltd

Año: 2023 vol. 14

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.