Abstract
Microfluidic devices are used in a myriad of biomedical applications such as cancer screening, drug testing, and point-of-care diagnostics. Three-dimensional (3D) printing offers a low-cost, rapid prototyping, efficient fabrication method, as compared to the costly—in terms of time, labor, and resources—traditional fabrication method of soft lithography of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). Various 3D printing methods are applicable, including fused deposition modeling, stereolithography, and photopolymer inkjet printing. Additionally, several materials are available that have low-viscosity in their raw form and, after printing and curing, exhibit high material strength, optical transparency, and biocompatibility. These features make 3D-printed microfluidic chips ideal for biomedical applications. However, for developing devices capable of long-term use, fouling—by nonspecific protein absorption and bacterial adhesion due to the intrinsic hydrophobicity of most 3D-printed materials—presents a barrier to reusability. For this reason, there is a growing interest in anti-fouling methods and materials. Traditional and emerging approaches to anti-fouling are presented in regard to their applicability to microfluidic chips, with a particular interest in approaches compatible with 3D-printed chips.
Highlights
Microfluidic devices are widely used in numerous fields
Pertaining to biotechnology, microfluidic devices have been used for cancer screening [1,2,3], microphysiological system engineering [4,5], high-throughput drug testing [6,7], and point-of-care diagnostics [8,9,10]
The numerous methods proposed for anti-fouling of PDMS suggest that reusable microfluidic devices are plausible
Summary
Microfluidic devices are widely used in numerous fields. Pertaining to biotechnology, microfluidic devices have been used for cancer screening [1,2,3], microphysiological system engineering [4,5], high-throughput drug testing [6,7], and point-of-care diagnostics [8,9,10]. Does public health benefit, but savings in healthcare costs could be drastically increased by further research focused on the development and implementation of preventative care methods and tools. To support this much-needed approach, there is an impending demand for low-cost, compact, and innovational technologies to perform routine health measurements across the population. Associated with protein absorption are possible anti-fouling techniques which may be implemented to improve the surface properties of 3D-printed devices With continued research, these anti-fouling methods applied to 3D-printed microfluidic devices will work towards the future of reusable, long-term use, low-cost, point-of-care biomedical devices. We assess the reusability of 3D-printed chips for biomedical applications through a review of 3D-printed microfluidic fabrication techniques, 3D-printable materials, and traditional and emerging anti-fouling methods and materials
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