Fabrication Of Polycarbonate Microfluidic Chips By Solvent Bonding

Fabrication of polycarbonate microfluidic chips is an important part of the microfluidic analysis technology. The general situation of microfluidic chips research is reviewed at home and abroad. The structure of microfluidic chips, the selection of the chip’s materials, the manufacture of the microstructure and the bonding method of the microfluidic chips are introduced.Microfluidic chips application is of disadvantaged on microfluidic research. But with the development of the fabrication of microfluidic chip and surface modification technology and with the application of microfluidic analysis, the application of Microfluidic chips in the analysis of life will become the focus and direction of research. Thermoplastic microfluidic chips have recently attracted considerable attention because low cost and biocompatibility.In this paper, thermoplastic polymers polycarbonate (PC) was used as the chip material. Using silicon model, nickel model and brass wires respectively, micro-chip channel structure was replicated by hot embossing. The temperature, pressure and time were optimized. At the optimal condition, the substrate with microchannel structure was investigated. Then, a series of morphology characterization on the micro-channel structure was made by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and the CCD. Finally, the performance of the polycarbonate chips was demonstrated in electrophoretic separation of Cy5.The study built in acetonitrile can partly dissolve polycarbonate materials. Polycarbonate chips were enclosed using solvent bonding with the room temperature. Stalling time, bonding temperature, pressure and dwell time on the bonding process was investigated. Morphology characterization on the micro-channel structure was made by SEM and CCD. Microchannel size change about bonding process is compared. The top width, bottom width and depth about change in the bonding process are respectively3.2μm,13.9μm, and5.2μm. and the RSD of the top width, bottom width and depth in the bonding process are respectively9.8%%4.1%and6.9%. The result showed solvent bonding is came ture and the channels distortion was little in the room temperature. And the average strength of tensile stress is0.95MPa. This paper shows that the fabrication of polycarbonate microfluidic chips by solvent bonding is of high sealing strength The performance of the polycarbonate chips was demonstrated of Cy5with a fluorescence intense precision of3.5%(n=9), a migration time of3.7%(n=9) and efficiency of1.0×105/m. It shows that solvent bonding production of PC microfluidic chip can be used in chip electrophoresis. Electrophoresis system has strong stability and good separation efficiency can be demonstrated.