A MICROBIOREACTOR BASED ON INTERFACIAL POLYMERIZATION AND APPLICATIONTO FLOW-INJECTION ANALYSIS OF GLUCOSE

A miniature bioreactor is described that uses micromachining fabricati on techniques. The bioreactor chamber is created by anisotropic etchin g of a silicon wafer and attached to a microelectronic sensor by epoxy resin. Any biocatalyst such as an enzyme, a combination of enzymes, o r intact viable cells can be contained within the microscopic chamber by an ultra-thin nylon membrane. Tight sealing of the membrane to the silicon wafer surface is achieved by pretreating the anisotropically e tched wafer surface with a silylating reagent and then creating the me mbrane by interfacial polymerisation. By appropriate selection of aque ous and organic phase constituents, the nylon membrane can be covalent ly linked to the wafer surface by amide bonds. As a simple demonstrati on for the usefulness of this concept, the microbioreactor has been co nfigured as a glucose sensor in a flow injection cell. Initial results are encouraging and demonstrate that many other applications are feas ible.