Fabrication of Inorganic Polymer‐Based Microchannel with Emphasis on New Bonding Procedure

Abstract

A In this work we developed a simple, cost effective method for fabricating microchannels from inorganic polymers with high optical transparency and high thermal stability. The glass-like microchannel and substrates were fabricated from commercially available poly(vinyl)silazane (PVS) using soft lithography process, followed by a sequential photo curing and thermal cross-linking step. The irreversible bonding between two patterned polymer surfaces, one containing the micro pattern (channel surface) and the other one spin coated with PVS, robustly sealed the channel eliminating the need of any additional surface modification. The resulting microchannels were found to be chemically inert to commonly used organic solvents, viz., methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, n-hexane, and tetrahydrofuran. In addition good biocompatibility of the fabricated channels makes them promising candidates for new material-based microfludics.