A lithography-free procedure for fabricating three-dimensional microchannels using hydrogel molds
A lithography-free procedure for fabricating three-dimensional microchannels using hydrogel molds
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DOI：
10.1007/s10544-012-9649-4
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发表时间：
2012-08-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Moriguchi, Hiroyuki
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hirama, Hirotada;Odera, Takahiro;Moriguchi, Hiroyuki
我们提出了一种无光刻的程序，用于制造固有的三维光滑壁的微通道内的聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）弹性体使用水凝胶模具。在制造过程中，将小块琼脂糖凝胶（“线”或“芯片”）嵌入未固化的PDMS复合材料中，以所需微通道的形状排列，并用作模具以形成微通道。该方法的要点在于，用于产生微通道的接头（诸如T接头或交叉接头）的模具可以通过简单地将凝胶线接枝到未固化的PDMS复合材料中而不使用粘合剂来稳固地形成。该方法的技术优势在于，三维微结构如具有圆形横截面的微通道、微通道的三维布置的接合部或互换部可以用简单的过程灵活地设计和制造，而不需要任何专门的设备或逐层组装过程。这种方法提供了一种低成本，绿色的程序，用于制造微流体设备，并承诺使微流体过程更容易获得和易于实现在各种科学领域。
We present a lithography-free procedure for fabricating intrinsically three-dimensional smooth-walled microchannels within poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer using hydrogel molds. In the fabrication process, small pieces of agarose gel ("wires" or "chips") are embedded in uncured PDMS composite, arranged in the shape of the desired microchannels, and used as molds to form the microchannels. The point of the process is that molds for creating junctions of microchannels such as T-junctions or cross-junctions can be robustly formed by simply grafting gel wires in uncured PDMS composite without using adhesive agents. The technical advantage of this method is that three-dimensional microstructures such as microchannels with circular cross sections, three-dimensionally arranged junctions or interchanges of microchannels can be flexibly designed and fabricated with a straightforward procedure without the need for any specialized equipment or layer-by-layer assemblage processes. This method provides a low-cost, green procedure for fabricating microfluidic devices and promises to make microfluidic processes more accessible and easy to implement in a variety of scientific fields.