a Polypyrrole-dodecylbenzenesulphonate-multi-walled carbon nanotube (PPy-DBS-MWCNT) films, thick enough (48.6 µm) to be peeled off from the steel electrode, were electrogenerated. Bilayer PPy-DBS-MWCNT/tape artificial muscles were constructed and submitted to potential sweeps with parallel video-recording of their angular displacements. The coulodynamic (angle-charge) responses reveal that the composite shrinks/swells by oxidation/reduction, respectively, due to the reaction-driven cation exchange. Reversible bending movements of 106° occur under faradaic (linear) control of the consumed charge. Minor deviations and hysteresis were identified with irreversible reactions and osmotic processes. The muscle is a faradaic motor.

We present a hydrophobization procedure for SU-8-based microfluidic chips on borofloat substrates. Different layouts of gold electrodes passivated by the polymer have been investigated. The chips are used for segmented flow in a two-fluid mode that requires a distinct hydrophobicity of the channel walls which is generated by the use of specific silane. In this paper we describe the production and silanization of the chips and demonstrate segmented flow operation.

Miniaturized biological test assays require an even distribution of the utilized cells in every single segment. For the cell dispension, two devices with a volume of about 2 milliliter were developed enabling simultaneous mixing and processing of suspensions into capillaries. These items will be used to generate homogeneous suspensions for a duration of up to one hour and distributing them with special microfluidic chips. Both devices could be easily sterilized by autoclaving and contain an agitator which is contactlessly driven with variable speed. Precise transportation of the mixed fluid in the lower microliter per minute range was realized by the use of syringe pumps. Suspensions with yeast, mammalian cells and beads were applied to investigate the efficiency of mixing and transportation as well as the effect on viability. At certain time intervals, samples were taken from the outlet, and the cell and bead content with the related viability was determined using an automated particle analyzer and counting chamber under the microscope. Yeast suspensions were handled up to two hours and hybridoma cells up to one hour without remarkable loss of viability whereby the degree of mixing was sufficient for these time periods. The results show that these modules are feasible tools for homogeneous mixing of cell suspensions, and transport through microfluidic devices allows dispensation of them into fluid segments on a microliter or nanoliter scale.

Thick films of polypyrrole/polyvinylsulfate (PPy/PVS) blends were electrogenerated on stainless‐steel electrodes under potentiostatic conditions from aqueous solution. The best electropolymerization potential window was determined by cyclic voltammetry. After removing the film from the back metal, self‐supported electrodes were obtained. Voltammetric, coulovoltammetric, and chronoamperometric responses from a LiClO4 aqueous solution indicated the formation of an energetically stable structure beyond a reduction threshold of the material. Its subsequent oxidation required higher anodic voltammetric overpotentials or longer chronoamperometric oxidation times. This structure was attributed to the formation of lamellar or vacuolar structures. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of the films under different oxidations states revealed that the electrochemical reactions drive the reversible exchange of cations between the film and the electrolyte. The electrical energy and the charge consumed by the reversible reaction of the film under voltammetric conditions between the constant potential limits are a function of the potential scan rate, that is, they sense the working electrochemical conditions.