A Review of Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Applications in Microfluidics and Microdevices

Abstract

Cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) are amorphous, transparent thermoplastics composed of cyclic olefin monomers (norbornene) and linear olefins (ethene). They are increasingly utilized as fabrication materials for microsystems and microfluidic devices, owing to their promising features of low water absorption, high electrical insulation, long-term stability of surface treatments, and resistance to a broad variety of acids and solvents. Many manufacturing processes for COC-based devices have been developed in recent decades. These methodologies are categorized as replication methods or fast prototyping as common in fabrication of thermoplastic microfluidic devices. This review gives a full discussion of the features of COCs, the various production processes, and the numerous selected applications in microfluidic platforms. The review also explores COC's composition and fundamental features, as well as fabrication processes and applications in a variety of fields, investigates the material's potential advantages and uses, and attempts to create a comprehensive list of COC's possible benefits. Due to their unique features and simplicity of fabrication, COCs are projected to advance the future of microfluidics, microsystems, and optofluidics.

Impact of ultraviolet radiation nearly overrides the effects of elevated pCO2 on a prominent nitrogen‐fixing cyanobacterium

“…Therefore, we recommend replacing PC or glass bottles with quartz containers during in situ investigations. Since quartz bottles are relatively costly and fragile, bottles made of cyclic olefin copolymer (Agha et al 2022) or borosilicate glass (Cai et al 2017) are UV‐transparent and can be considered as an alternative.…”

Breaking the clean room barrier: exploring low-cost alternatives for microfluidic devices

“…Cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) in particular, are a type of thermoplastic material composed of cyclic olefin monomers and linear olefins ( Bruijns et al, 2020 ; Agha et al, 2022 ). COC possesses numerous advantageous properties, including low water absorption, excellent electrical insulation, long-term surface treatment stability, and resistance to a broad range of acids and solvents ( Shakeri et al, 2022b ; Guan et al, 2022 ).…”

A review on microfluidic-assisted nanoparticle synthesis, and their applications using multiscale simulation methods

“…Conversely to the previously reported works where the majority of microchannels were fabricated from glass or PDMS, other researchers explored polymer microfluidic fabrications via cheaper and simpler methods such as 3D printing and laser ablation [83].…”

“…Alternative materials include polymers such as cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). These thermoplastics are transparent and versatile, and can be used to fabricate microchannels via hot embossing, injection molding, micromachining, laser ablation, and 3D printing [83]. For example, Aranguren et al [156] fabricated PMMA serpentine microchannels via laser ablation, and demonstrated production of lipid NPs (188 nm) at a maximum flow rate of 5 mL/min.…”