Overview of Materials for Microfluidic Applications

Abstract

For each material dedicated to microfluidic applications, inherent microfabrication and specific physico-chemical properties are key concerns and play a dominating role in further microfluidic operability. From the first generation of inorganic glass, silicon and ceramics microfluidic devices materials, to diversely competitive polymers alternatives such as soft and rigid thermoset and thermoplastics materials, to finally various paper, biodegradable and hydrogel materials; this chapter will review their advantages and drawbacks regarding their microfabrication perspectives at both research and industrial scale. The chapter will also address, the evolution of the materials used for fabricating microfluidic chips, and will discuss the application-oriented pros and cons regarding especially their critical strategies and properties for devices assembly and biocompatibility, as well their potential for downstream biochemical surface modification are presented.

High blood flow shear stress values are associated with circulating tumor cells cluster disaggregation in a multi-channel microfluidic device

“…The technique adopted for the device fabrication is 3D printing combined with soft-lithography. Although both 3D-printing and the PDMS-molding procedures require individual skill and expertise, they were combined to boost the respective advantages offered by 3D-printing in terms of time efficiency and complexity of the models and by PDMS-molding, due to the superior physico-mechanical properties of PDMS as substrate for microfluidic applications [ 41 ]. The fluidic device here fabricated is optically transparent and sufficiently thick to sustain pressures necessary to perform dynamic experiments and, at the same time, to allow microscopic observation.…”

Rapid Fabrication of Membrane-Integrated Thermoplastic Elastomer Microfluidic Devices

“…This bonding results from macro-molecular motion of the sTPE’s ethylene-butylene (EB) soft polymer portion. The EB block possesses a negative glass transition temperature, allowing polymer chain mobility that can be promoted at elevated temperatures to facilitate spontaneous bonding with itself and other materials [ 49 , 52 ]. Full material and microstructure deformation is inhibited, however, by the PS hard block portion of FD, whose glass transition temperature remains above the baking temperature.…”

“…The superior pressure capacity of FD-FD devices as compared to FD-PC devices likely indicates a greater material interaction of FD with itself than with PC, as the bonding mechanism of such styrenic block copolymers relies on the mobility of EB polymer chains at the interface of the two like surfaces in contact [ 52 ]. It then follows that the PC, which does not contain the same EB blocks, has a weaker interaction with FD.…”

Fabrication of high-quality glass microfluidic devices for bioanalytical and space flight applications

“…Since the introduction of microfabricated total analysis systems (µTAS) in 1990 [1] , there has been an explosion of interest in utilizing microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip technologies for a broad range of applications in the life and chemical sciences [2 , 3] . As the applications of microfluidics have expanded, numerous materials including silicon, quartz/fused silica, glass, ceramics, hydrogels, polymers, and papers have been used for developing these devices bearing diverse functionalities [2] . Among these materials, glass has remained the preferred material for capillary electrophoresis (CE) in a miniaturized planar format [3 , 4] .…”