Rapid Prototyping of Hybrid, Plastic-Quartz 3D-Chips for Battery-Operated Microplasmas

Characterization of rapidly-prototyped, battery-operated, argon-hydrogen microplasma on a hybrid chip for elemental analysis of microsamples by portable optical emission spectrometry

“…For instance, for optimization of operating conditions and for fundamental studies that may help elucidate excitation mechanisms, thus also helping further improve analytical performance characteristics. The results may also be used for future fabrication of "optimized" microplasma geometries using either semiconductor technology [37,38] or soft lithography of micro-fluidic channels on plastic chips [39] or via 3D-printing [22][23][24]. …”

“…The microplasma was formed between two stainless-steel needle electrodes ( Fig. 1) that were inserted at the opposite ends of a chip with a microplasma channel rapidly prototyped [22][23][24] out of Teflon®.…”

“…In addition to their small dimension as a key characteristic, microplasmas can be classified in a number of ways [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. To name but a few, according to their operating pressure (e.g., atmospheric-pressure or low-pressure); according to the type of electrical power used to sustain them [8][9][10][11]; as gas-liquid microplasmas (e.g., those that use an electrolyte solution as part of an electrode [12][13][14][15][16]); according to their geometric shape (e.g., planar [10], microhollow [17]); and, according to their method of fabrication (e.g., micromachined or rapidly-prototyped microplasmas on planar, postage-stamp size 2D-chips or 3D-printed microplasmas on 3D-chips [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]). Thus far, microplasmas of the type classified above received attention in the literature, such as, in review articles [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], in books [26,27] and in a growing list of papers describing their use in chemical analysis [7][8][9][10]…”

Microfluidics and Nanofluidics: Science, Fabrication Technology (From Cleanrooms to 3D Printing) and Their Application to Chemical Analysis by Battery-Operated Microplasmas-On-Chips

“…Rapid prototyping via 3D-printing [109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122] involves both a technology (e.g., a 3D printer) and a materials platform (e.g., a polymer) for formation (primarily) of mill-sized fluidic (and recently) micro-sized channels [115,117,120]. An example of 3D printing will be discussed later in this chapter.…”

“…Example 3: 3D-printed, milli-sized fluidic channels on polymeric materials for hybrid 3D chips. 3D printing technology [109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122] using polymeric materials is receiving attention for rapid prototyping [109] including fabrication of mm channels (often called millifluidics) and more recently for sub-mm channels (using specialized printers) [120,121]. We used 3D-printing due to reduced fabrication and ownership costs and due to quick turn-around times (often from concept to prototype in hours).…”