Patterning reactive microdomains inside polydimethylsiloxane microchannels by trapping and melting functional polymer particles.
This paper describes a facile technique to pattern reactive microdomains inside polydimethylsiloxane microchannels by utilizing polymer particles as the carrier of functional groups. The air/liquid interface formed in microchannels equipped with microwells exerts lateral force on the particles, trapping particles only inside the wells. We then fix the polymer matrix on the wells by melting the trapped particles to form reactive domains with flexible shapes and high resolution. We employed monodisperse poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate) microparticles having an epoxy group and patterned various types of microdomains with a resolution of several micrometers. Several tests confirmed the presence of the epoxy group and the flatness of the patterned domain. The presented scheme provides a new way of preparing highly functional microsystems by using simple operations and would be useful for various applications, including local patterning of graft polymers and the site-specific cultivation of cells in a confined space.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531, Japan.
Masashi
M
Yamamoto
Masumi
M
Yamada
Nobuhiro
N
Nonaka
Shizuka
S
Fukushima
Masahiro
M
Yasuda
Minoru
M
Seki
D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D008863:Microspheres; D010316:Particle Size; D011109:Polymethacrylic Acids / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D044366:Transition Temperature
D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; D011109:Polymethacrylic Acids; C524317:poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate)