Geometric Determinants of In-Situ Direct Laser Writing
Geometric Determinants of In-Situ Direct Laser Writing
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-018-36727-z
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发表时间：
2019-01-23
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Sochol, Ryan D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lamont, Andrew C.;Alsharhan, Abdullah T.;Sochol, Ryan D.
直接激光写入（DLW）是一种三维（3D）制造技术，其在亚微米长度尺度上提供显著的几何多功能性。尽管这些特性对于包括器官建模和微流体处理的领域具有希望，但是与促进流体递送所需的宏观到微观界面相关联的困难限制了DLW用于这些应用的效用。为了克服这个问题，在这里，我们报告了一个原位DLW（isDLW）的战略，直接创建三维纳米结构的功能内，值得注意的是，完全密封到溶胶-凝胶涂层的弹性体微通道。特别是，我们研究了微通道几何形状的作用（例如，横截面形状和尺寸）在isDLW印刷结构的密封性能中的作用。实验表明，增加微通道侧壁的向外渐缩改善了通道高度从10 μ m到100 μ m的流体密封完整性，这表明传统的微通道制造方法不太适合isDLW。作为一个示范性的例子，我们采用isDLW来3D打印微流体螺旋线圈弹簧二极管，并观察到在更高压力下改善的整流性能-这是有效结构与通道密封的指示。我们设想，能够容易地将3D纳米结构的流体图案与弹性体通道的整个管腔表面集成，将为软微机器人和生物流体微系统等领域的新兴应用开辟新的途径。
Direct laser writing (DLW) is a three-dimensional (3D) manufacturing technology that offers significant geometric versatility at submicron length scales. Although these characteristics hold promise for fields including organ modeling and microfluidic processing, difficulties associated with facilitating the macro-to-micro interfaces required for fluid delivery have limited the utility of DLW for such applications. To overcome this issue, here we report an in-situ DLW (isDLW) strategy for creating 3D nanostructured features directly inside of-and notably, fully sealed to-sol-gel-coated elastomeric microchannels. In particular, we investigate the role of microchannel geometry (e.g., cross-sectional shape and size) in the sealing performance of isDLW-printed structures. Experiments revealed that increasing the outward tapering of microchannel sidewalls improved fluidic sealing integrity for channel heights ranging from 10 mu m to 100 mu m, which suggests that conventional microchannel fabrication approaches are poorly suited for isDLW. As a demonstrative example, we employed isDLW to 3D print a microfluidic helical coil spring diode and observed improved flow rectification performance at higher pressures-an indication of effective structure-to-channel sealing. We envision that the ability to readily integrate 3D nanostructured fluidic motifs with the entire luminal surface of elastomeric channels will open new avenues for emerging applications in areas such as soft microrobotics and biofluidic microsystems.