Issue 21, 2014

A pressure-tolerant polymer microfluidic device fabricated by the simultaneous solidification-bonding method and flash chemistry application

Abstract

Pressure-tolerant polymer-glass microfluidic reactors with excellent bonding strength have been fabricated by the simultaneous solidification-bonding (SSB) method, in which a viscous and reactive matrix polymer was cast on the glass substrate with pre-patterned wax as a sacrificial template. Elaborate interfacial chemistry between the matrix polymer and the functionalized glass surface was designed to achieve simultaneous solidification and chemical bonding under UV or/and mild thermal conditions (<200 °C with no pressure). Highly pressure-tolerant microchannels were obtained by complete removal of the liquid wax template at 80 °C. Versatility was demonstrated by fabricating microreactors from various polymers with different interfacial chemistry, which were all stable at 1000 psi with the highest burst pressure of 2000 psi. In particular, the fluoropolymer-glass microreactor can withstand a burst pressure that is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the microchannel made by the conventional method. Finally, the polymer-glass microfluidic device was used for the synthesis of a natural product, tryptanthrin, by flash chemistry under high pressure induced conditions (synthetic yield: 90%, flow rate: 10.5 mL min−1, reaction time: 14 ms). The transparent microfluidic device can be used as a useful platform for miniaturizing spectroscopic tools for chemical analysis studies under high pressure conditions.

Graphical abstract: A pressure-tolerant polymer microfluidic device fabricated by the simultaneous solidification-bonding method and flash chemistry application

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 May 2014
Accepted
18 Aug 2014
First published
22 Aug 2014

Lab Chip, 2014,14, 4263-4269

Author version available

A pressure-tolerant polymer microfluidic device fabricated by the simultaneous solidification-bonding method and flash chemistry application

W. Ren, H. Kim, H. Lee, J. Wang, H. Wang and D. Kim, Lab Chip, 2014, 14, 4263 DOI: 10.1039/C4LC00560K

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