Fabrication of Glass Microchannels Using Plant Roots and Nematodes

Abstract

Microchannels have been studied actively in recent years. Various types of materials are used for fabricating microchannels in different types of applications including polymers, and ceramics. Since glass materials have appealing properties such as hardness, transparency, thermal resistance, and chemical resistance, they are used in biomedical devices and microfluidic application. Glass microchannel fabrication methods include chemical etching, imprinting, and 3D printing. This paper proposes unprecedented methods to fabricate glass microchannels using plant roots growth and nematodes migration. The microchannels fabricated by these methods have a complex three-dimensional structure, and the smallest channels have a diameter of several tens of micrometers in the glass. Although glass is attractive material, it is challenging to sinter the green body to fully dense and transparent solid structure. Hence, experiments were also conducted to establish a fabrication technique for transparent silica glass.