Development of a new microfabrication process to allow the fabrication of microfluidic chip on conductive material to be able to do electrochemistry.
In order to have a conductive electrode and contre-electrode the fluidic system need to be create using metallic substrate, moreover since the height of the channels may have to be under 100µm, only a lithography process could acheive the resolution and the versatility require. A first work have been done to test the know processes and materials used by the company but none could do the work and so a new photo resist and a new process has to be developed. From this work the KN30 and the process present in the image "Conductive substrate process" has been created enable a reproductible and new microfabrication process. From an inexpected point of view, the process developed allow a robust lithography process without the use of solvent so don't have to be execute under a fume hood. It's a really nice aspect that the company BlackHole Lab used also to create a non solvent microfabrication kit for their customer.
Design and optimisation of chips to perform methylene blue synthesis.
Two main aspects in the geometry of the chip has to be taking in a account, the height of the channel that is know control by the KN30 process developed in the project and the time residency inside the deivce, highly linked to the total lengh of the channel. From this work and statement the design shown in the picture "DeviceDesign" have been imagined.
Development of a kit for fast reproduction of PMMA chip.
On a parrallele direction and because BlackHole Lab have seen the potential of the KN30 microfabrication process, a new way to do plastic (PMMA) device have been developed. Microfluidic have been spread more and more these last years and more people are using it. The access to the microfluidic needs to be simpler and faster, with simple process and cheap device. For this reason having a way to propose a PMMA microfbarication process it's a big asset.
- Mold replication using hot embossing process
The KN30 microfbarication process has been modify to create not the fluidic device itself has previsously but to create a mold that is highly robust and can support high temperature and pressure.
Thanks to this robustness the mold can be used in hot embossing process has shown in the picture "PMMAFastProduction process".
- PMMA bonding using a mix chemical/heat/pressure solution
Once the PMMA is mold, we hav obtained some open structure and it needs to be close to have the fluidic device. The bonding is maybe the most difficult and sensitive part of the process. But thanks to a combinaison of a chemical (using chloroforme) an heat and a pressure treatment describe in the picture "PMMAFastProduction process_Bonding" a repetable way have been found.
Communication and Dissemination
Conference presentations, reviews, published abstracts and lectures
• Published Reviews, Elvesys website ( Figure 21)
1. Chemical resistance of microfluidic materials
https://www.elveflow.com/microfluidic-reviews/general-microfluidics/chemical-resistance-ofmicrofluidic-materials/(si apre in una nuova finestra)2. Chemical synthesis with microfluidics
https://www.elveflow.com/microfluidic-reviews/general-microfluidics/chemical-synthesis-with-microf(si apre in una nuova finestra)luidics-review/
• Poster, NanoBioTech conference- Montreux, Switzerland 5-17 November 2022
• Published Abstract, Shima MOMENIAZANDARIANI, Sebastian Cargou, and
Benjamin Sevenie. NanoBioTech, Annual european conference on micro & nanoscale
technologies for the biosciences ( Figure 21)
