Direct printing of microfluidic chips using a novel liquid photocurable polystyrene prepolymer

Santiago Franco Corredor; Andrea Kick; Manuel Luitz; Dorothea Helmer; Frederik Kotz; Bastian E. Rapp

doi:10.1117/12.2577562

5 March 2021 Direct printing of microfluidic chips using a novel liquid photocurable polystyrene prepolymer

Santiago Franco Corredor, Andrea Kick, Manuel Luitz, Dorothea Helmer, Frederik Kotz, Bastian E. Rapp

Proceedings Volume 11637, Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems XIX; 1163706 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2577562
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2021, Online Only

Abstract

Structuring polymeric materials is important for almost all applications in microsystems engineering, microfluidics and microoptics. Especially rapid prototyping using direct optical printing methods has gained great importance, also for facilitating product development for microfluidic applications. However, the choice of materials is still limited. Polystyrene (PS) is the material of choice for medical, biological and biochemical applications due to its biocompatibility, optical transparency, surface properties and low costs. However, PS is usually structured using industrial polymer replication techniques like injection molding or hot embossing. So far, only little work has been done on rapid prototyping and direct printing of microfluidic chips in PS. In this work, we present a novel liquid polystyrene prepolymer, which can be photocured and structured on the microscale using direct lithography printing. Using this method microchannels with a minimum channel width of 500 µm have been fabricated. The cured PS shows material properties comparable to those of commercially available polystyrene.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Santiago Franco Corredor, Andrea Kick, Manuel Luitz, Dorothea Helmer, Frederik Kotz, and Bastian E. Rapp "Direct printing of microfluidic chips using a novel liquid photocurable polystyrene prepolymer", Proc. SPIE 11637, Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems XIX, 1163706 (5 March 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2577562

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