Abstract
Shedding synchrotron light on microfluidic systems, exploring several contrasts in situ/operando at the nanoscale, like X-ray fluorescence, diffraction, luminescence, and absorption, has the potential to reveal new properties and functionalities of materials across diverse areas, such as green energy, photonics, and nanomedicine. In this work, we present the micro-fabrication and characterization of a multifunctional polyester/glass sealed microfluidic device well-suited to combine with analytical X-ray techniques. The device consists of smooth microchannels patterned on glass, where three gold electrodes are deposited into the channels to serve in situ electrochemistry analysis or standard electrical measurements. It has been efficiently sealed through an ultraviolet-sensitive sticker-like layer based on a polyester film, and The burst pressure determined by pumping water through the microchannel(up to 0.22 MPa). Overall, the device has demonstrated exquisite chemical resistance to organic solvents, and its efficiency in the presence of biological samples (proteins) is remarkable. The device potentialities, and its high transparency to X-rays, have been demonstrated by taking advantage of the X-ray nanoprobe Carnaúba/Sirius/LNLS, by obtaining 2D X-ray nanofluorescence maps on the microchannel filled with water and after an electrochemical nucleation reaction. To wrap up, the microfluidic device characterized here has the potential to be employed in standard laboratory experiments as well as in in situ and in vivo analytical experiments using a wide electromagnetic window, from infrared to X-rays, which could serve experiments in many branches of science.
Highlights
Shedding synchrotron light on microfluidic systems, exploring several contrasts in situ/operando at the nanoscale, like X-ray fluorescence, diffraction, luminescence, and absorption, has the potential to reveal new properties and functionalities of materials across diverse areas, such as green energy, photonics, and nanomedicine
Microfluidic devices operate with small amounts of samples through micrometer and/or sub-micrometer channels[1]
Similar limitations are found in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), another popular polymer substrate for the production of microfluidic chips
Summary
Shedding synchrotron light on microfluidic systems, exploring several contrasts in situ/operando at the nanoscale, like X-ray fluorescence, diffraction, luminescence, and absorption, has the potential to reveal new properties and functionalities of materials across diverse areas, such as green energy, photonics, and nanomedicine. The device consists of smooth microchannels patterned on glass, where three gold electrodes are deposited into the channels to serve in situ electrochemistry analysis or standard electrical measurements It has been efficiently sealed through an ultraviolet-sensitive sticker-like layer based on a polyester film, and The burst pressure determined by pumping water through the microchannel(up to 0.22 MPa). Presents some disadvantages that should be considered: it is permeable to small molecules due to its porosity, which can affect the devices throughput[20], and it shows low chemical resistance to many organic s olvents[21] This elastomer can lead to non-accurate results in biological assays and it is restricted to analyses in aqueous media. NOA is a thiolene based polymer that attracted attention due to exhibiting interesting properties like low cost, optical transparency in the visible range, high chemical resistance to strong solvents (acetone, hydrochloric acid, toluene)[24,27], and hydrophobicity[26] becoming a great candidate for applications in synchrotron beamlines[28,29]
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