Quartz crystal microbalance biosensor design: II. Simulation of sample transport

The influence of flow cell geometry on sample dispersion in a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) biosensor system was investigated. A circular and a rectangular flow cell and corresponding sensor electrodes were studied experimentally and modelled using a coupled Navier-Stokes and convection-diffusion model. Finite element simulations showed that dispersion phenomena in a flow cell can be significantly reduced with the rectangular flow cell compared to a circular system. Experimental results from measurement of the time-dependent viscosity change of a model sample indicate that the sample delivery system has a predominant effect on the dispersion of the whole sensor system. Consequently, improvement of the sensor flow cell should be accompanied with improvement of the sample delivery system. With reference to kinetic studies of biological interactions, the current dispersion should have little effect on the results for studies of interaction pairs with relatively slow to normal binding rates such as antibody-antigen interactions. Incentive for further development of the flow cell and sample delivery system exists primarily for applications with high reaction rates such as for certain receptor ligand interactions.