Petr Smejkal

Cost-Effective Three-Dimensional Printing of Visibly Transparent Microchips within Minutes

One-step fabrication of transparent three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic to millifluidic devices was demonstrated using a commercial 3D printer costing

Microfluidic isotachophoresis: a review.

2300 with 500 mL of clear resin for

Comparing Microfluidic Performance of Three-Dimensional (3D) Printing Platforms

138. It employs dynamic mask projection stereolithography, allowing fast concept-to-chip time. The fully automated system allows fabrication of models of up to 43 mm × 27 mm × 180 mm (x × y × z) at printing speeds of 20 mm/h in height regardless of the design complexity. The minimal cross sectional area of 250 μm was achieved for monolithic microchannels and 200 μm for positive structures (templates for soft lithography). The colorless resins good light transmittance (>60% transmission at wavelengths of >430 nm) allows for on-chip optical detection, while the electrically insulating material allows electrophoretic separations. To demonstrate its applicability in microfluidics, the printer was used for the fabrication of a micromixer, a gradient generator, a droplet extractor, and a device for isotachophoresis. The mixing and gradient formation units were incorporated into a device for analysis of nitrate in tap water with standard addition as a single run and multiple depth detection cells to provide an extended linear range.

Chip‐based CE for rapid separation of 8‐aminopyrene‐1,3,6‐trisulfonic acid (APTS) derivatized glycans

Electromigration methods including CE and ITP are attractive for incorporation in microfluidic devices because they are relatively easily adaptable to miniaturization. After its popularity in the 1970s, ITP has made a comeback in microfluidic format (μ‐ITP, micro‐ITP) driven by the advantages of the steady‐state boundary, the self‐focusing effect, and the ability to aid in preconcentrating analytes in the sample while removing matrix components. In this review, we provide an overview of the developments in the area of μ‐ITP in a context of the historic developments with a focus on recent developments in experimental and computational ITP and discuss possible future trends. The chip‑ITP areas and topics discussed in this review and the corresponding sections include: PC simulations and modeling, analytical μ‐ITP, preconcentration ITP, transient ITP, peak mode ITP, gradient elution ITP, and free‐flow ITP, while the conclusions provide a critical summary and outlook. The review also contains experimental conditions for μ‐ITP applications to real‐world samples from over 50 original journal publications.

Novel Instrument for Automated pKa Determination by Internal Standard Capillary Electrophoresis

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has emerged as a potential revolutionary technology for the fabrication of microfluidic devices. A direct experimental comparison of the three 3D printing technologies dominating microfluidics was conducted using a Y-junction microfluidic device, the design of which was optimized for each printer: fused deposition molding (FDM), Polyjet, and digital light processing stereolithography (DLP-SLA). Printer performance was evaluated in terms of feature size, accuracy, and suitability for mass manufacturing; laminar flow was studied to assess their suitability for microfluidics. FDM was suitable for microfabrication with minimum features of 321 ± 5 μm, and rough surfaces of 10.97 μm. Microfluidic devices >500 μm, rapid mixing (71% ± 12% after 5 mm, 100 μL/min) was observed, indicating a strength in fabricating micromixers. Polyjet fabricated channels with a minimum size of 205 ± 13 μm, and a surface roughness of 0.99 μm. Compared with FDM, mixing decreased (27% ± 10%), but Polyjet printing is more suited for microfluidic applications where flow splitting is not required, such as cell culture or droplet generators. DLP-SLA fabricated a minimum channel size of 154 ± 10 μm, and 94 ± 7 μm for positive structures such as soft lithography templates, with a roughness of 0.35 μm. These results, in addition to low mixing (8% ± 1%), showed suitability for microfabrication, and microfluidic applications requiring precise control of flow. Through further discussion of the capabilities (and limitations) of these printers, we intend to provide guidance toward the selection of the 3D printing technology most suitable for specific microfluidic applications.

Exploring chip-capillary electrophoresis-laser-induced fluorescence field-deployable platform flexibility: Separations of fluorescent dyes by chip-based non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis

Fluorescently labeled carbohydrates released from glycoproteins were separated using a commercially available microfluidic chip electrophoresis system. While the instrumentation was primarily designed for DNA analysis it was found that the application base can be easily expanded using the development software provided by the manufacturer. The carbohydrates were released by enzymatic digestion (PNGase F) from glycoproteins present in human plasma after boronic acid – lectin affinity enrichment. After fluorescent labeling with 8‐aminopyrene‐1,3,6‐trisulfonic acid the carbohydrates were separated based on capillary gel electrophoresis mechanism and detected by a fluorescence detector using a blue (470 nm) LED. The separation was completed in 40 s in a microfluidic channel of 14 mm length. Glucose ladder carbohydrate oligomers differing by one glucose unit were baseline separated up to a 20‐mer with the main limitation being the detection sensitivity. As expected, the observed resolution in these experiments did not approach that of standard CE with 20 times longer separation distance; however, the chip‐based analysis excelled in the speed of the separation. Similar electrophoretic profiles of glycans released from plasma glycoproteins were obtained using a standard CE equipment with 35 cm separation length and microfluidic chips with a separation distance of only 14 mm.

One-Step Fabrication of a Microfluidic Device with an Integrated Membrane and Embedded Reagents by Multimaterial 3D Printing.

The internal standard capillary electrophoresis method (IS-CE) has been implemented in a novel sequential injection-capillary electrophoresis instrument for the high-throughput determination of acidity constants (pK(a)) regardless of aqueous solubility, number of pK(a) values, or structure. This instrument comprises a buffer creation system that automatically mixes within a few seconds four reagents for in situ creation of the separation electrolyte with a pH range of 2-13, ionic strength of 10-100 mM and organic solvent content from 0% to 40%. Combined with 1.2 kV/cm and a short effective length (15 cm to the UV detector) fast 20 s electrophoretic separations can be obtained. The low standard deviation of the replicates and the low variation compared to reference values show that this system can accurately determine acidity constants of drugs by IS-CE. A single pK(a) can be determined in 2 min and a set of 20 measurements in half an hour, allowing rapid, simple, and flexible determination of pK(a) values of pharmaceutical targets.

Isotachophoresis on a chip with indirect fluorescence detection as a field deployable system for analysis of carboxylic acids

Microfluidic chip electrophoresis (chip-CE) is a separation method that is compatible with portable and on-site analysis, however, only few commercial chip-CE systems with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and light emitting diode (LED) fluorescence detection are available. They are established for several application tailored methods limited to specific biopolymers (DNA, RNA and proteins), and correspondingly the range of their applications has been limited. In this work we address the lack of commercially available research-type flexible chip-CE platforms by exploring the limits of using an application-tailored system equipped with chips and methods designed for DNA separations as a generic chip-CE platform - this is a very significant issue that has not been widely studied. In the investigated Agilent Bioanalyzer chip-CE system, the fixed components are the Agilent chips and the detection (LIF at 635 nm and LEDIF at 470 nm), while the chemistry (electrolyte) and the programming of all the high voltages are flexible. Using standard DNA chips, we show that a generic CE function of the system is easily possible and we demonstrate an extension of the applicability to non-aqueous CE (NACE). We studied the chip compatibility with organic solvents (i.e. MeOH, ACN, DMF and DMSO) and demonstrated the chip compatibility with DMSO as a non-volatile and non-hazardous solvent with satisfactory stability of migration times over 50h. The generic CE capability is illustrated with separations of fluorescent basic blue dyes methylene blue (MB), toluidine blue (TB), nile blue (NB) and brilliant cresyl blue (BC). Further, the effects of the composition of the background electrolyte (BGE) on the separation were studied, including the contents of water (0-30%) and buffer composition. In background electrolytes containing typically 80 mmol/L ammonium acetate and 870 mmol/L acetic acid in 100% DMSO baseline separation of the dyes were achieved in 40s. Linearity was documented in the range of 5-28 μmol/L, 10-100 μmol/L, 1.56-50 nmol/L and 5-75 nmol/L (r(2) values in the range 0.974-0.999), and limit of detection (LOD) values were 90 nmol/L, 1 μmol/L 1.4 nmol/L, and 2 nmol/L for MB, TB, NB and BC, respectively.

Analytical isotachophoresis of lactate in human serum using dry film photoresist microfluidic chips compatible with a commercially available field-deployable instrument platform

One of the largest impediments in the development of microfluidic-based smart sensing systems is the manufacturability of integrated, complex devices. Here we propose multimaterial 3D printing for the fabrication of such devices in a single step. A microfluidic device containing an integrated porous membrane and embedded liquid reagents was made by 3D printing and applied for the analysis of nitrate in soil. The manufacture of the integrated, sealed device was realized as a single print within 30 min. The body of the device was printed in transparent acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and contained a 400 μm wide structure printed from a commercially available composite filament. The composite filament can be turned into a porous material through dissolution of a water-soluble material. Liquid reagents were integrated by briefly pausing the printing before resuming for sealing the device. The devices were evaluated by the determination of nitrate in a soil slurry containing zinc particles for the reduction of nitrate to nitrite using the Griess reagent. Using a consumer digital camera, the linear range of the detector response ranged from 0 to 60 ppm, covering the normal range of nitrate in soil. To ensure that the sealing of the reagent chamber is maintained, aqueous reagents should be avoided. When using the nonaqueous reagent, the multimaterial device containing the Griess reagent could be stored for over 4 days but increased the detection range to 100-500 ppm. Multimaterial 3D printing is a potentially new approach for the manufacture of microfluidic devices with multiple integrated functional components.

Separation of carboxylic acids in human serum by isotachophoresis using a commercial field-deployable analytical platform combined with in-house glass microfluidic chips

ITP with indirect fluorescence detection (IFD) was introduced three decades ago. Despite this fact, the method has never become widely adopted. The main aim of this work was to utilize the ITP–IFD for the separation of carboxylic acids by using a commercially available, portable, microfluidic chip electrophoresis system. On the 16.8‐mm effective length separation channel, a maximum of eight carboxylic acids could be separated, with LOD values in a range from 0.12 to 0.4 mM. The commercial chips used for all experiments have multichannel structures important for analysis of more than one sample per a chip in case of standard use. This multichannel structure was used to investigate the possibility of multiple sample loading for ITP separation. Application of ITP–IFD was investigated for analysis of benzoate in diet soft drinks and the results were in good agreement with results of a CE method.