scholarly journals 3D-Printed Microfluidic Droplet Generator with Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Polymers

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Chandler A. Warr ◽  
Hunter S. Hinnen ◽  
Saroya Avery ◽  
Rebecca J. Cate ◽  
Gregory P. Nordin ◽  
...  

Droplet generation has been widely used in conventional two-dimensional (2D) microfluidic devices, and has recently begun to be explored for 3D-printed droplet generators. A major challenge for 3D-printed devices is preventing water-in-oil droplets from sticking to the interior surfaces of the droplet generator when the device is not made from hydrophobic materials. In this study, two approaches were investigated and shown to successfully form droplets in 3D-printed microfluidic devices. First, several printing resin candidates were tested to evaluate their suitability for droplet formation and material properties. We determined that a hexanediol diacrylate/lauryl acrylate (HDDA/LA) resin forms a solid polymer that is sufficiently hydrophobic to prevent aqueous droplets (in a continuous oil flow) from attaching to the device walls. The second approach uses a fully 3D annular channel-in-channel geometry to form microfluidic droplets that do not contact channel walls, and thus, this geometry can be used with hydrophilic resins. Stable droplets were shown to form using the channel-in-channel geometry, and the droplet size and generation frequency for this geometry were explored for various flow rates for the continuous and dispersed phases.

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 024102
Author(s):  
Junchao Wang ◽  
Kaicong Liang ◽  
Naiyin Zhang ◽  
Hailong Yao ◽  
Tsung-Yi Ho ◽  
...  

Separations ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Alena Šustková ◽  
Klára Konderlová ◽  
Ester Drastíková ◽  
Stefan Sützl ◽  
Lenka Hárendarčíková ◽  
...  

In our work, we produced PDMS-based microfluidic devices by mechanical removal of 3D-printed scaffolds inserted in PDMS. Two setups leading to the fabrication of monolithic PDMS-based microdevices and bonded (or stamped) PDMS-based microdevices were designed. In the monolithic devices, the 3D-printed scaffolds were fully inserted in the PDMS and then carefully removed. The bonded devices were produced by forming imprints of the 3D-printed scaffolds in PDMS, followed by bonding the PDMS parts to glass slides. All these microfluidic devices were then successfully employed in three proof-of-concept applications: capture of magnetic microparticles, formation of droplets, and isotachophoresis separation of model organic dyes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 411 (21) ◽  
pp. 5405-5413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen K. Parker ◽  
Anna V. Nielsen ◽  
Michael J. Beauchamp ◽  
Haifa M. Almughamsi ◽  
Jacob B. Nielsen ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Sui Ching Phung ◽  
Qingfu Zhu ◽  
Kimberly Plevniak ◽  
Mei He

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mohamed ◽  
Hitendra Kumar ◽  
Zongjie Wang ◽  
Nicholas Martin ◽  
Barry Mills ◽  
...  

With the dramatic increment of complexity, more microfluidic devices require 3D structures, such as multi-depth and -layer channels. The traditional multi-step photolithography is time-consuming and labor-intensive and also requires precise alignment during the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Here, we present an inexpensive, single-step, and rapid fabrication method for multi-depth microfluidic devices using a high-resolution liquid crystal display (LCD) stereolithographic (SLA) three-dimensional (3D) printing system. With the pixel size down to 47.25 μm, the feature resolutions in the horizontal and vertical directions are 150 μm and 50 μm, respectively. The multi-depth molds were successfully printed at the same time and the multi-depth features were transferred properly to the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) having multi-depth channels via soft lithography. A flow-focusing droplet generator with a multi-depth channel was fabricated using the presented 3D printing method. Experimental results show that the multi-depth channel could manipulate the morphology and size of droplets, which is desired for many engineering applications. Taken together, LCD SLA 3D printing is an excellent alternative method to the multi-step photolithography for the fabrication of multi-depth microfluidic devices. Taking the advantages of its controllability, cost-effectiveness, and acceptable resolution, LCD SLA 3D printing can have a great potential to fabricate 3D microfluidic devices.


Author(s):  
Haoran Wang ◽  
Anton Enders ◽  
Alexander Heisterkamp ◽  
Janina Bahnemann ◽  
Maria Leilani Torres-Mapa

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna V. Nielsen ◽  
Michael J. Beauchamp ◽  
Gregory P. Nordin ◽  
Adam T. Woolley

Traditional microfabrication techniques suffer from several disadvantages, including the inability to create truly three-dimensional (3D) architectures, expensive and time-consuming processes when changing device designs, and difficulty in transitioning from prototyping fabrication to bulk manufacturing. 3D printing is an emerging technique that could overcome these disadvantages. While most 3D printed fluidic devices and features to date have been on the millifluidic size scale, some truly microfluidic devices have been shown. Currently, stereolithography is the most promising approach for routine creation of microfluidic structures, but several approaches under development also have potential. Microfluidic 3D printing is still in an early stage, similar to where polydimethylsiloxane was two decades ago. With additional work to advance printer hardware and software control, expand and improve resin and printing material selections, and realize additional applications for 3D printed devices, we foresee 3D printing becoming the dominant microfluidic fabrication method.


Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 970
Author(s):  
J. Israel Martínez-López ◽  
Héctor Andrés Betancourt Cervantes ◽  
Luis Donaldo Cuevas Iturbe ◽  
Elisa Vázquez ◽  
Edisson A. Naula ◽  
...  

In this paper, we characterized an assortment of photopolymers and stereolithography processes to produce 3D-printed molds and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) castings of micromixing devices. Once materials and processes were screened, the validation of the soft tooling approach in microfluidic devices was carried out through a case study. An asymmetric split-and-recombine device with different cross-sections was manufactured and tested under different regime conditions (10 < Re < 70). Mixing performances between 3% and 96% were obtained depending on the flow regime and the pitch-to-depth ratio. The study shows that 3D-printed soft tooling can provide other benefits such as multiple cross-sections and other potential layouts on a single mold.


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