Paper-based
microfluidic devices are a rapidly emerging field,
but applications are limited by the relatively large size of the features
that can be currently manufactured. Here, we investigate reducing
the feature size by spray-coating cellulose nanofibers (CNF) onto
patterned molds, with a focus on optimizing the cellulose chemistry
and size to optimize molding performance. We investigated the effects
of (i) decreasing nanofiber size and increasing aspect ratio by homogenization,
(ii) decreasing the suspension viscosity by partial substitution of
carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), and (iii) partial substitution of cellulose
nanofibers with cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) to reduce aspect ratio
and improve packing. Only CNC addition substantially improved molding
fidelity. Channel widths down to 5 μm could be made using a
50:50 mixture of CNF:CNC. This is by far the smallest channel width
that has been achieved with any cellulose fiber-based microfluidics
and opens the way to further miniaturization within these devices.
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