Surface textured polymer fibers for microfluidics
Date
2014Source Title
Advanced Functional Materials
Print ISSN
1616-301X
Publisher
WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
Volume
24
Issue
29
Pages
4569 - 4576
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This article introduces surface textured polymer fibers as a new platform for the fabrication of affordable microfluidic devices. Fibers are produced tens of meters-long at a time and comprise 20 continuous and ordered channels (equilateral triangle grooves with side lengths as small as 30 micrometers) on their surfaces. Extreme anisotropic spreading behavior due to capillary action along the grooves of fibers is observed after surface modification with polydopamine (PDA). These flexible fibers can be fixed on any surface - independent of its material and shape - to form three-dimensional arrays, which spontaneously spread liquid on predefined paths without the need for external pumps or actuators. Surface textured fibers offer high-throughput fabrication of complex open microfluidic channel geometries, which is challenging to achieve using current photolithography-based techniques. Several microfluidic systems are designed and prepared on either planar or 3D surfaces to demonstrate outstanding capability of the fiber arrays in control of fluid flow in both vertical and lateral directions. Surface textured fibers are well suited to the fabrication of flexible, robust, lightweight, and affordable microfluidic devices, which expand the role of microfluidics in a scope of fields including drug discovery, medical diagnostics, and monitoring food and water quality.