title: Artificial microfluidic skin for in vitro perspiration simulation and testing.
abstract: To expedite development of any skin wearable material, product, or device, an artificial perspiration (sweat) simulator can provide improved ease, cost, control, flexibility, and reproducibility in comparison to human or animal tests. Reported here is a human perspiration mimicking device including microreplicated skin-texture. A bottom 0.2 μm track etched polycarbonate membrane layer provides flow-rate control while a top photo-curable layer provides skin-like features such as sweat pore density, hydrophobicity, and wetting hysteresis. Key capabilities of this sweat simulator include: constant 'sweat' rate density without bubble-point variation even down to ~1 L h(-1) m(-2); replication of the 2 pores mm(-2) pore-density and the ~50 μm texture of human skin; simple gravity-fed flow control; low-cost and disposable construction.
authors.affiliation: School of Electronic and Computing Systems, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA.
authors.forename: Linlin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hagen
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Papautsky
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Naik
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kelley-Loughnane
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heikenfeld
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D007834:Lasers; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011076:Polycarboxylate Cement / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D013545:Sweat Glands / Q000378:metabolism; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D011076:Polycarboxylate Cement; C005506:polycarbonate