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A rigid poly(dimethylsiloxane) sandwich electrophoresis microchip based on thin‐casting method
Author(s) -
Liu Changchun,
Cui Dafu,
Cai Haoyuan,
Chen Xing,
Geng Zhaoxin
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.200500581
Subject(s) - materials science , casting , electrophoresis , chromatography , composite material , chemistry
We present a novel concept of glass/poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)/glass sandwich microchip and developed a thin‐casting method for fabrication. Unlike the previously reported casting method for fabricating PDMS microchip, several drops of PDMS prepolymer were first added on the silanizing SU‐8 master, then another glass plate was placed over the prepolymer as a cover plate, and formed a glass plate/PDMS prepolymer/SU‐8 master sandwich mode. In order to form a thin PDMS membrane, a weight was placed on the glass plate. After the whole sandwich mode was cured at 80°C for 30 min, the SU‐8 master was easily peeled and the master microstructures were completely transferred to the PDMS membrane which was tightly stuck to the glass plate. The microchip was subsequently assembled by reversible sealing with the glass cover plate. We found that this PDMS sandwich microchip using the thin‐casting method could withstand internal pressures of >150 kPa, more than 5 times higher than that of the PDMS hybrid microchip with reversible sealing. In addition, it shows an excellent heat‐dissipating property and provides a user‐friendly rigid interface just like a glass microchip, which facilitates manipulation of the microchip and fix tubing. As an application, PDMS sandwich microchips were tested in the capillary electrophoresis separation of fluorescein isothiocyanate‐labeled amino acids.