The investigations presented here focus on optimization of DNA microfluidic devices. Different wide bandgap materials such as diamond, Al 2 O 3 , polymer (polydimethylsiloxane) and quartz are compared with regard to optical and electrical properties, bioinertness and heat transfer. Different phenomena occurring during capillary electrophoretic separations are taken into consideration. The advantages and drawbacks of using different materials are discussed taking into consideration technological possibilities of manufacturing microstructures and economical aspects.
Diamond is increasingly used in biomedical applications because of its unique properties such as the highest thermal conductivity, good optical properties, high electrical breakdown voltage as well as excellent biocompatibility and chemical resistance. Diamond has also been introduced as an excellent substrate to make the functional microchip structures for electrophoresis, which is the most popular separation technique for the determination of analytes. In this investigation, a diamond electrophoretic chip was manufactured by a replica method using a silicon mold. A polycrystalline 300 micron-thick diamond layer was grown by the microwave plasma-assisted CVD (MPCVD) technique onto a patterned silicon substrate followed by the removal of the substrate. The geometry of microstructure, chemical composition, thermal and optical properties of the resulting free-standing diamond electrophoretic microchip structure were examined by CLSM, SFE, UV-Vis, Raman, XRD and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, and by a modified laser flash method for thermal property measurements.
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