A new soft lithographic route for the facile fabrication of hydrophilic sandwich microchips

Abstract

Manufacturing materials are an essential element for the fabrication of microfluidic chips. PDMS, the most widely used polymeric material, is associated with apparent disadvantages such as hydrophobic nature, while other materials also suffer from some limitations. In this paper, a new soft lithographic route was proposed for the facile manufacturing of hydrophilic sandwich microchips, using bisphenol A based epoxy acrylate (BABEA) as a new patterning material. The BABEA copolymers are hydrophilic, highly transparent in visible range while highly untransparent when the wavelength is less than 290 nm, and of high replication fidelity. By combining with appropriate monomers, including glycidyl methacrylate, methylmethacrylate, and acrylic acid, the copolymers contain active functional groups, which allows for easy postmodification for desirable functional units. A fabrication procedure was proposed for manufacturing hybrid quartz/BABEA copolymer/quartz microchips. In the procedure, no micromachining equipments, wet etching, or imprinting techniques were involved, making the fabrication approach applicable in ordinary chemistry laboratories. The performance of the prepared microchips was demonstrated in terms of CIEF with UV-whole channel imaging detection. The hydrophilic microchannel ensures stable focusing while the polymeric middle layer acts as a perfectly aligned optical slit for whole channel UV absorbance detection.

Micro Total Analysis Systems: Fundamental Advances and Biological Applications

“…For example, a UV-active bisphenol A acrylate polymer was sandwiched between two quartz plates to both define the channel pattern in the polymer and to bond the two glass slides together. 27 Dry film photoresist on glass substrates can similarly be employed to create channels through photolithographic processes and then used to bond the photoresist patterned glass to oxidized PDMS to form an enclosed channel manifold. 28 One issue of particular importance when bonding multiple substrates with channel patterns that must interconnect is alignment.…”

New method for fabricating an α‐fetoprotein affinity monolithic polymer array

“…However, the assay is slow (e.g., several hours) and requires large volumes of samples and reagents. 17,18 UV-initiated polymerization is more desirable for the fabrication of monolithic arrays because it can provide spatial resolution with a photomask. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Miniaturized immunoassays, nevertheless, place greater demands on handling accuracy, and attempts to address this with more precise machinery naturally translate to a higher cost.…”

Synthesis of Hydrophilic Epoxy-Functionalized Films by UV-Initiated Copolymerization

“…With increasing interest in applying chemical devices in biological applications, it is important to develop new alternatives to provide more desirable properties. Bisphenol A based epoxy acrylate (BABEA) is one of the most widely used commercially available UV curable oligomers for its fast curing speed, low-cost, good pigment wetting, high gloss, hardness, and chemical resistance to the cured films [7]. These interesting and unique properties have made BABEA a good candidate as protective resin.…”