Microfluidic devices easily created using an office inkjet printer

Abstract

Although various processes have been used for producing microfluidic devices, many of them are not so simple that ordinary end-users can produce the devices by themselves. However, in this study, microfluidic devices were easily produced using an office inkjet printer. As the components of the device, channels, manifolds, and mixers were created by printing their shapes on glass slides using the printer. A syringe pump could control the flow of fluid through the manifolds and mixers. In addition, resistivity of the device to acidic and basic solutions was tested.

Surface microfluidics fabricated by photopatternable superhydrophobic nanocomposite

“…Surface microfluidics, originally evolved from the surface-directed channels, can be categorized into three configurations: the microflow confined between two surfaces of identical hydrophobic micropatterns (Lam et al 2002;Besson et al 2006;Lee et al 2006;West et al 2007;Watanabe 2009a;2010), the microflow restricted between one wettability-patterned surface and another uniform hydrophobic substrate (Bouaidat et al 2005), and the microflow directed on a single planar substrate with ultrahigh wettability contrast (Juncker et al 2002;Piorek et al 2007;Hong and Pan 2010a, b), as will be compared in Sect. 3 (Open Surface Fluidic Configurations).…”

Direct-writing colloidal photonic crystal microfluidic chips by inkjet printing for label-free protein detection

“…41,42 The surface-tension-confined microfluidic device can be fabricated easily using the inkjet printing technique with hydrophilic inks. 43 In virtual surface-tension-confined microfluidic devices, multiple functions have been proved such as chemical reactions, 44 spontaneous oscillating liquid transport, 45 passive micromixing 46 and sensitive SERS detection. 47 For the prepared PC microfluidic chip, the PC patterns are native hydrophilic channels on the hydrophobic substrate.…”

Droplet-driven transports on superhydrophobic-patterned surface microfluidics

“…For instance, we have previously adopted a nanocomposite approach, of which chemically inert PTFE nanoparticles are embedded into a photo-definable SU-8 matrix, to establish superhydrophobic micropatterns lithographically. 17,27,28 Others have applied ink-jet printing, [29][30][31][32][33] self-assembly, 18,34-36 chemical deposition 37,38 and lift-off 39 techniques to construct highly contrasted wetting patterns. One apparent distinction between the surface and enclosed microfluidics is the elastic gas-liquid interface pinned at the triple line, which enables its unconventional spatial (threedimensional) and temporal (capacitive) flow characteristics.…”