Jingmin Li

Hot embossing/bonding of a poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) microfluidic chip

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) has a low glass transition temperature. Therefore it has significant applications in fields where low bonding temperature is needed. But PET microfluidic chip production using a hot embossing/bonding method has rarely been reported. In this study, hot embossing was conducted for a micro-features fabrication on a PET substrate, and a special temperature–pressure profile was used to achieve high replication accuracy without a vacuum; plasma surface treatment was used to improve the bonding capability of PET material, a cover plate was bonded with a substrate at a low temperature of around 63 °C, and VB2 was used as a separation solvent to test the capability of the PET microfluidic chip. The results show that high replication accuracy can be achieved using the new hot embossing process without a vacuum. Plasma surface treatment has increased the surface energy of the PET substrate and hot bonding can be achieved in low temperature. Plasma treatment has also changed the hydrophobic property of PET material; electrophoresis has been conducted successfully.

Modification of amorphous poly(ethylene terephthalate) surface by UV light and plasma for fabrication of an electrophoresis chip with an integrated gold microelectrode

Amorphous poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), which possess a low softening temperature (T(s)=75 degrees C), was exploited to fabricate the electrophoresis chip with an integrated gold electrode for amperometric detection, with emphases being focused on the PET surface modification via UV light and air plasma. Both UV irradiation and plasma treatment were found to be able to improve the surface wettability, enhance the supported electroosmotic flow (EOF), and increase thermal bonding strength of PET sheets, with the latter being more efficient and less time-consuming than the former in the surface modification. Upon treated with plasma for 2 min, the PET sheets could be thermally bonded at 65 degrees C. T-peer test showed that the bonding strength increased from 10 g/cm for native PET sheets to 1250 g/cm for the plasma treated sheets when chips were bonded at the softening point, Attenuated-total-internal-reflection spectrum showed that, after being exposed to the UV light, carboxylic groups site-selectively formed in the UV-exposed region on PET surface. These UV-induced carboxylic groups were further utilized as the scaffold for preparation of micro-gold electrode via electroless gold plating. By using this established UV-directed electroless plating and the plasma-assisted thermal bonding techniques, the full PET electrophoresis chip with an integrated micro-gold electrode could be fabricated in common chemistry laboratory without the need of clean rooms. The fabricated PET chips were demonstrated for separation and detection of model analytes of dopamine (DA) and catechol (CA). Satisfactory resolution of the two analytes was achieved within 40s, and detection limits of 0.87 microM and 1.28 microM for DA and CA were obtained, respectively.

PMMA microfluidic devices with three-dimensional features for blood cell filtration

In this paper, a PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) microfluidic device with filtration features fabricated by hot embossing and thermal bonding was used to separate RBCs (red blood cells) from whole rat blood. The filtration features are composed of 20 µm deep and 300 µm wide main channels, 15 µm high and 25 µm wide micro-dams which were fabricated in main channels and an array of orthogonal side channels for perfusion flow to collect RBCs. As rat blood advances through the main channels, a perfusion flow through the side channels washes away RBCs which are sufficiently small to enter the gaps between the micro-dams and the cover plate. A silicon mold fabricated by dry etching was used to produce three-dimensional filtration features on PMMA substrates. Oxygen plasma treatment was used to increase the adhesive ability of PMMA surfaces, which enables thermal bonding at 86 °C and 0.75 MPa. The distortion of microchannels and micro-dams has been minimized, which makes the value of the gap between the micro-dam and the cover plate appropriate for cell filtration.

A multilayer microdevice for cell-based high-throughput drug screening

A multilayer polydimethylsiloxane microdevice for cell-based high-throughput drug screening is described in this paper. This established microdevice was based on a modularization method and it integrated a drug/medium concentration gradient generator (CGG), pneumatic microvalves and a cell culture microchamber array. The CGG was able to generate five steps of linear concentrations with the same outlet flow rate. The medium/drug flowed through CGG and then into the pear-shaped cell culture microchambers vertically. This vertical perfusion mode was used to reduce the impact of the shear stress on the physiology of cells induced by the fluid flow in the microchambers. Pear-shaped microchambers with two arrays of miropillars at each outlet were adopted in this microdevice, which were beneficial to cell distribution. The chemotherapeutics Cisplatin (DDP)-induced Cisplatin-resistant cell line A549/DDP apoptotic experiments were performed well on this platform. The results showed that this novel microdevice could not only provide well-defined and stable conditions for cell culture, but was also useful for cell-based high-throughput drug screening with less reagents and time consumption.

The dual role of deposited microbead plug (DMBP): a blood filter and a conjugate reagent carrier toward point-of-care microfluidic immunoassay.

To set up a point-of-care whole-blood immunoassay system, sample preparation and on-chip storage of conjugate reagents are indispensable functional units. Here, we merge these functions into a deposited microbead plug (DMBP) to simultaneously play the roles of a blood filter and a conjugate reagent carrier. The DMBP was easily fabricated by the use of natural deposition of beads without the need of weirs. Conjugate reagents (FITC labeled antibodies used here) were incorporated into the DMBP during the assembly of the DMBP. To demonstrate the ability of the DMBP, we constructed a DMBP-based microfluidic chip and used it for the detection of human IgG (hIgG). The DMBP enabled to remove blood cells from whole blood and provide the pure plasma for the downstream on-chip immunoreactions. The release of reconstituted FITC labeled antibodies from the DMBP was controlled in a passive fashion. Dry FITC labeled antibodies retained at least 81% of their activity after 60 days of storage at the room temperature. The DMBP presented here makes an important step towards the development of the self-contained, integrated, sample-to-answer microfluidic chips for point-of-care diagnostics.

Microchannel refill: a new method for fabricating 2D nanochannels in polymer substrates.

In this paper, we present a new approach that is capable of fabricating nanochannels in a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate. This method, which we call microchannel refill (MR), utilizes the refilling of glassy thermoplastics under thermal compression to reduce a microscopic channel to a nanochannel. It only has two main steps. First, a microchannel is fabricated in a PMMA substrate using normal hot embossing. Second, the microchannel is compressed under a certain temperature and pressure to obtain a nanochannel. We show that a nanochannel with a width as small as 132 nm (with a depth of 85 nm) can be easily produced by choosing the appropriate compression temperature, compression pressure, original microchannel width and original microchannel aspect ratio. Compared with most current nanochannel fabrication methods, MR is a quick, simple and cost-effective way to produce nanochannels in polymer substrates.

External-integrated biomimetic micropump for microfluidic system

Abstract. An external-integrated biomimetic micropump for a microfluidic system is demonstrated. An “artificial leaf” is constituted, which mimics the stomatal transpiration process in plants and utilizes the negative pressure generated to drive the fluid flow. The biomimetic micropump integrated an SU-8 film with a micropore array, agarose gel, a flow rate control unit, and additional necessary operating auxiliaries. SU-8 film with micropores and agarose gel is used to mimic the stomata and the mesophyll cells in a leaf, respectively. The flow rate control unit can change the flow rate of the micropump by adjusting the number of micropores that participate in transpiration. Additional necessary operating auxiliaries can fix a microchip, provide a continuous fluid supply, and speed up the fluid flow rate. Experiments on a microchip are conducted to evaluate the performance of the micropump platform. Results have shown that the flow rate of the micropump can be increased by accelerating the wind speed or raising the temperature.

Fracture mechanism of metal electrode integrated on a chip and fabrication of a poly(ethylene terephthalate) electrophoresis microchip.

Thermal bonding is an important technique to fabricate polymer electrophoresis microchip. However, the metal electrodes deposited on polymer substrate can readily fracture during the thermal bonding. In this paper, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was exploited to fabricate the electrophoresis microchip with an integrated gold electrode for amperometric detection. The fracture of the gold electrode was studied through FEA (finite element analysis) simulations, the potentially risk positions on the electrode were shown. The calculation results were tested by bonding experiments and were proven to be consistent with the experiments. Besides, an optimal bonding temperature for PET chip was also presented based on FEA simulations and bonding experiments. Considering the low surface properties of PET, oxygen plasma-assisted thermal bonding technique was used to enhance bonding. Upon treated for 150 s, the PET substrates could be thermally bonded at 62 degrees C without electrode fracture. The fabricated PET chips were demonstrated for detection of standard glucose solution. Satisfactory reproducibility was achieved, and the RSD values of peak height and migration time of the PET CE chips were 0.51% and 2.17%, respectively.

Micro-to-nano scale filling behavior of PMMA during imprinting

The filling behavior of polymers in narrow gaps or small pores is important for the dynamics of polymeric micro/nanostructure fabrication. Here, the filling behavior, the mechanical properties, and the stress versus strain relationship of 996 kD poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) at a scale from micron to molecular confinement are measured. It has been found that the solid polymer exhibits elastic-plastic dominant deformation behavior at micron scale. As the scale reduces to submicron, the resistance to deformation of the polymeric solid has a pronounced reduction. A softening effect and the visco-dominant behavior which is always exhibited by melt flow is observed. In confinement conditions, an anomalous hardening effect is found. The modulus and the hardness of 996 kD PMMA have been found to increase dramatically. The stress-strain curve also exhibits an obvious hardening phenomenon which is contrary to the conventional shear thinning and deformation acceleration results. The results of this paper show that the PMMA can exhibit a change of “solid-fluid-solid” in mechanical character at micron to molecular confinement scale.

A bionic MIS device for lumbar fracture reduction

Open surgery is currently the main treatment method for the lumbar burst fracture with neurological deficit but may irreversibly disrupt the lumbar anatomy. The minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques have gained increasing attentions recently. However, their use is still limited to lumbar burst fractures mainly due to their difficulties in burst fracture reduction and decompression. Here we present a novel bio-inspired MIS device which can be used with an endoscope to reset the bone fragments retropulsed into the spinal canal within the wounded vertebral body. This study may be capable of converting the posterior open surgeries to the MIS procedures, and expands the use of the MIS techniques in the treatment of lumbar burst fractures.