Gravitational Field-Flow Fractionation Devices Fabricated via a Hot Embossing/Thermal Bonding Method

Abstract

A novel hot embossing/low temperature ethanol solvent bonding method for the fabrication of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) field flow fractionation devices has been developed. The separation channel on a PMMA substrate was generated by a hot embossing process without vacuum. Special temperature-pressure profiles were used to analyze the influence of the hot embossing parameters. After the hot embossing process, ethanol solvent bonding was used to seal the separation channel on the PMMA substrate. The experimental results show that the bonding strength with ethanol solvent bonding at 35 °C (aspect ratio (depth/width): 0.043) is 3.05 MPa, and the deformation percentage is very low (0.54%). A burst pressure test indicated that the as-prepared PMMA gravitational field flow fractionation device has a very high burst pressure. Furthermore, the higher resolution of the as-prepared PMMA gravitational field flow fractionation device in the separation of wheat and starch particles shows that the hot embossing/low temperature ethanol solvent bonding technique will have potential commercial value.

Safe and cost-effective rapid-prototyping of multilayer PMMA microfluidic devices

“…Ethanol acts both as a solvent (we noticed deposits of PMMA in the channels when preliminarily testing with large amounts of ethanol) and as a plasticiser, as it was shown (Wang et al 1994) that it lowers the T g of PMMA to 11 °C, thus allowing the movement of polymer chains at the interfaces. Yang described the characterisation of postembossing ethanol bonding technique lasting a total of more than 6 h (Yang 2014). In another example, Hsu and Chen explored bonding with ethanol, methanol and isopropanol using a Taguchi approach for experiments planning (Hsu and Chen 2007).…”