Self-patterned gold electroplated multicapillary separation columns

Abstract

This paper reports on a method for self-patterned electroplating to selectively deposit gold on vertical surfaces of microfabricated silicon structures. This method was developed out of the effort to realize microfabricated multicapillary columns (µMCC) for chromatographic separation aimed for handheld chemical analysis. Results showed the successful selective vertical wall electroplating of µMCCs comprising an unprecedented number of channels (8 and 16). The µMCCs were functionalized using self-assembly of thiol groups and evaluated for their chromatographic performance. µMCCs demonstrated high separation efficiency as indicated by the 6500/m theoretical plate number and proved to have high sample capacities, which increases with the number of capillaries operating in parallel in these MEMS columns.

MEMS Devices for Miniaturized Gas Chromatography

“…Agah's group introduced in 2010 a new stationary phase based on deposing gold by electroplating followed by its functionalization [30,31]. The thickness and the regularity of the layer are customized by varying the current density.…”