Laser-based patterning for fluidic devices in nitrocellulose

He, Peijun, Katis, Ioannis, Eason, Robert W. and Sones, Collin L. (2015) Laser-based patterning for fluidic devices in nitrocellulose. Biomicrofluidics, 9 (2), 1-10. (doi:10.1063/1.4919629).

Abstract

In this report, we demonstrate a simple and low cost method that can be reproducibly used for fabrication of microfluidic devices in nitrocellulose. The fluidic patterns are created via a laser-based direct-write technique that induces polymerisation of a photo-polymer previously impregnated in the nitrocellulose. The resulting structures form hydrophobic barriers that extend through the thickness of the nitrocellulose and define an interconnected hydrophilic fluidic-flow pattern. Our experimental results show that using this method it is possible to achieve microfluidic channels with lateral dimensions of ~100µm using hydrophobic barriers that form the channel walls with dimensions of ~60µm; both of these values are considerably smaller than those that can be achieved with other current techniques used in the fabrication of nitrocellulose-based fluidic devices. A simple grid patterned nitrocellulose device was then used for the detection of C-reactive protein via a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, which served as a useful proof-of-principle experiment.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Ioannis Katis

Author: Robert W. Eason

Download statistics