The excessive pesticide residues in cereals, fruit and vegetables is a big threat to human health, and it is necessary to develop a portable, low-cost and high-precision pesticide residue detection scheme to replace the large-scale laboratory testing equipment for rapid detection of pesticide residues. In this study, a colorimetric device for rapid detection of organophosphorus pesticide residues with high precision based on a microfluidic mixer chip was proposed. The microchannel structure with high mixing efficiency was determined by fluid dynamics simulation, while the corresponding microfluidic mixer chip was designed. The microfluidic mixer chip was prepared by a self-developed liquid crystal display (LCD) mask photo-curing machine. The influence of printing parameters on the accuracy of the prepared chip was investigated. The light source with the optimal wavelength of the device was determined by absorption spectrum measurement, and the relationship between the liquid reservoir depth and detection limit was studied by experiments. The correspondence between pesticide concentration and induced voltage was derived. The minimum detection concentration of the device could reach 0.045 mg·L⁻¹ and the average detection time was reduced to 60 s. The results provide a theoretical and experimental basis for portable and high-precision detection of pesticide residues.

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are difficult to apply to flexible grippers due to their small deformation range and low output force. Hence, a DEA with a large bending deformation range and output force was designed, and a corresponding flexible gripper was developed to realize the function of grasping objects of different shapes. The relationship between the pre-stretch ratio and DEA deformation degree was tested by experiments. Based on the performance test results of the dielectric elastomer (DE), the bending deformation process of DEAs with different shapes was simulated by Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation. DEAs with different shapes were prepared through laser cutting and the relationship between the voltage and the bending angle, and the output force of the DEAs was measured. The result shows that under uniaxial stretching, the deformation of the DEA in the stretching direction gradually increases and decreases in the unstretched direction with the increase in the pre-stretch ratio. Under biaxial stretching, DEA deformation increases with the increase in the pre-stretch ratio. The shape of the DEA has a certain influence on the bending deformation range under the same conditions, and the elliptical DEA has a larger bending deformation range and higher output force compared with the rectangular DEA and the trapezium DEA. The elliptical DEA can produce a bending deformation of 40° and an output force of 37.2 mN at a voltage of 24 kV. The three-finger flexible gripper composed of an elliptical DEA can realize the grasping of a paper cup.

Chlorine is widely used for sterilization and disinfection of water, but the presence of excess residual chlorine in water poses a substantial threat to human health. At present, there is no portable device which can achieve accurate, rapid, low-cost, and convenient detection of residual chlorine in water. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a device that can perform accurate, rapid, low-cost, and convenient detection of residual chlorine in water. In this study, a portable residual chlorine detection device was developed. A microfluidic chip was studied to achieve efficient mixing of two-phase flow. This microfluidic chip was used for rapid mixing of reagents in the portable residual chlorine detection device, reducing the consumption of reagents, detection time, and device volume. A deep learning algorithm was proposed for predicting residual chlorine concentration in water, achieving precise detection. Firstly, the microfluidic chip structure for detecting mixed reagents was optimized, and the microfluidic chip was fabricated by a 3D-printing method. Secondly, a deep learning (LS-BP) algorithm was constructed and proposed for predicting residual chlorine concentration in water, which can realize dual-channel signal reading. Thirdly, the corresponding portable residual chlorine detection device was developed, and the detection device was compared with residual chlorine detection devices and methods in other studies. The comparison results indicate that the portable residual chlorine detection device has high detection accuracy, fast detection speed, low cost, and good convenience. The excellent performance of the portable residual chlorine detection device makes it suitable for detecting residual chlorine in drinking water, swimming pool water, aquaculture and other fields.