For polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a formation of interconnected pores and an addition of Silwet L-77 are, respectively, made as physical treatment and chemical one to change the material properties involved in the water permeable flow through PDMS. Here, we investigate a change in the water permeable flow through PDMS induced by physicochemical treatment. 28 kinds of physicochemically treated PDMS (pc-PDMS) blocks having different pore sizes of 50-500 µm and different Silwet L-77 concentrations of 0.0-8.0 wt% are prepared using a pressure-assisted compaction and NaCl particle-leaching technique. The values of mass flow rate and flow delay are obtained from pressure-driven water flow through pc-PDMS blocks as indexes for characterizing their water permeable flow. Our physicochemical treatment successfully controls the water permeable flow through PDMS, which means that pc-PDMS can be used for the development of powerless microfluidic regulators for aqueous chemicals in micro-total analysis systems (µ-TAS).
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