Microfluidic devices for the detection of contamination in water samples: A review

Being a burgeoning environmental problem, water pollution becomes a worldwide apprehension due to the inadequate accessibility of fresh water. Heavy metals, pharmaceuticals waste, organic, and inorganic contaminants present in wastewater have shown significant threats to the environment and public health globally. Currently available monitoring techniques involve complex equipment, longer processing time, and highly skilled professionals, making these techniques inadequate. Towards achieving a portable, highly sensitive, and selective water quality control system, microfluidic devices have emerged as the technique for the need of the hour. Several researchers have turned their attention to the microfluidic devices and have been doing extensive research on the development and application of microfluidic-based devices for the detection of water contaminants. Considering the fact that microfluidic devices have already marking an impact in this field, this review article discusses latest development on the microfluidic-based water quality control devices. This review summarizes popular fabrication approaches for microfluidic devices, explored detection schemes, relevant fundamentals along with the state-of-the-art research work performed on microfluidic devices for water contamination including heavy metals, organic, and inorganic contaminants.