Ongoing PhD. Research

MISS NEJAT MOHAMMEDNUR ,Addis Ababa University 

Development of paper based microfluidic analytical device(μPAD) for quantitative determination of Pharmaceuticals in water . Available techniques to quantitatively measure pharmaceutical compounds in environmental samples at low concentration include high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS, and UV- visible spectrophotom. Although these methods are accurate and sensitive, they require highly trained personnel, complex sample preparation, expensive and bulky equipment etc. Due to the increased demande for on-site testing, these techniques can hardly meet the high throughput, rapid and user-friendly criteria during these tasks. An alternative detection system is to use paper-based analytical devices. Since the first paper device being developed by Martinez, Phillips, and Whitesides (2007) for biosensing, paper devices showed promising results for various applications. No research is reported on paper based microfluidic device (μPAD) using bees wax printing for detection of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater. This research will provide detail understanding on development of paper based analytical device using bees wax printing for detection of pharmaceutical compounds in water and wastewater. The objectives of this study are: 

  • To develop paper based Analytical Microfluidic device (μPAD) for detection of selected pharmaceutical compounds in water and wastewater. 
  • To optimize analytical parameters for the quantitative determination of pharmaceuticals in water and wastewater 
  • To validate the methods of paper based analytical device(μPAD) with UV- visible spectrophotometry.   
  • To test the method using water and wastewater from various sources