Abstract
In this paper, a novel method for manufacturing flexible microfluidic chips without bonding process is proposed, which combines 3D printing technology and material dissolution technology. The manufacturing process of the microfluidic chip is as follows: a soluble HIPS mold with a preset shape is manufactured by 3D printing and placed in a molten PDMS solution for solidification. Soak in the limonene material to dissolve the mold and form a microchannel in the cured PDMS. Experimental studies have shown that the temperature and concentration of the limonene solution have an important effect on the dissolution rate. A 0.62 cm3 HIPS mold has the fastest dissolution rate at 100°C and 50% concentration. The proposed method provided a new idea for fabricating flexible microfluidic chip. Compared to bonding process, it has the characteristics of not relying on complicated processing conditions and low manufacturing cost.
Highlights
The microfluidic chip is originally called the “laboratory on a chip.” It is a microplatform through the microchannel, pump, valve, liquid reservoir, electrode, and other different structures in the microscale environment to complete microprocessing or microexperiment
This paper proposes a new method, without bonding process, for manufacturing integrated microfluidic chips with 3D printing and limonene dissolution technology
A hybrid experiment was performed on the fabricated chip
Summary
A novel method for manufacturing flexible microfluidic chips without bonding process is proposed, which combines 3D printing technology and material dissolution technology. The manufacturing process of the microfluidic chip is as follows: a soluble HIPS mold with a preset shape is manufactured by 3D printing and placed in a molten PDMS solution for solidification. Soak in the limonene material to dissolve the mold and form a microchannel in the cured PDMS. Experimental studies have shown that the temperature and concentration of the limonene solution have an important effect on the dissolution rate. A 0.62 cm HIPS mold has the fastest dissolution rate at 100°C and 50% concentration. The proposed method provided a new idea for fabricating flexible microfluidic chip. It has the characteristics of not relying on complicated processing conditions and low manufacturing cost
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