For medical and diagnostic applications involving microfluidic devices, stable and well-characterized surfaces are essential. Alfa Chemistry has a number of surface coating technologies that can produce microfluidic patterns on practically any surface without causing any obstructions. Surface coating choices include hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and oleophobic coatings, which can be employed alone or in combination to create precise microfluidic patterns. Contact us to collaborate on effective microfluidic devices!
Why Do You Need A Microfluidic Coating?
We provide microfluidic surface coating methods that may be applied to a wide range of microfluidic problems. You can use our surface modification coatings to increase product quality in some of the following circumstances.
- The material of your product wicks away from the intended path.
- The material of your product does not wick in the appropriate location.
- Your product necessitates rapid pattern flexibility without the need for rework.
- The thickness of the physical pattern is not permitted by the package design of your product.
Suitable Microfluidic Coating Solution
Our microfluidic surface modification method will result in a long-lasting hydrophobic, oleophobic, or hydrophilic surface on the surface of your microfluidic product. Surface energy measurements show that the water contact angle is 115°-120°, the oil contact angle is 75°-85°, and the water contact angle is less than 10°.
PDMS is a hydrophobic substance with implications for microfluidics using droplets. The modification of the PDMS surface to make it hydrophilic is of tremendous interest. Alfa Chemistry employs the PVA deposition process to create a hydrophilic PDMS surface for droplet microfluidics. The procedure involves immediately covering the channels with PVA after plasma treatment. The PVA-treated device could create droplets using standard surfactants and phospholipids, according to contact angle and hydrophilic surface lifespan measurements.
Fig 1. O/w droplet wetting in a PDMS channel. (a) Untreated PDMS. (b) Plasma oxidized (100 W for 1 min) PDMS treated with PVA (87-90% hydrolysis). (Trantidou T, et al. 2017)
We silanized the PDMS substrate to increase its hydrophobicity. Silanation is the formation of stable covalent connections between silanol groups on the SiO2 surface and alkoxysilanes. Other microfluidic materials, such as COC, PC, and PMMA, can be processed in addition to PDMS.
In microfluidic applications such as organs-on-a-chip, contamination-free surfaces are critical. Clogging of micropores, bubble formation, excessive noise signals, unstable experimental behavior, and other issues might arise when biological materials are adhered to surfaces. Alfa Chemistry creates antifouling coatings that create a hydrostatic barrier to biomolecules, preventing non-specific biomolecules from adhering. This impermeable water layer prevents bacterial fouling on the surface.
Why Choose Alfa Chemistry?
- Without raising physical channel design requirements, our microfluidic surface alterations allow for reduced complexity and a significantly lower package size.
- Our microfluidic surface changes, when combined with specialized deposition equipment, enable very fine and detailed patterns.
Reference
- Trantidou T, et al. (2017). "Hydrophilic Surface Modification of PDMS for Droplet Microfluidics Using a Simple, Quick, and Robust Method via PVA Deposition." Microsystems & Nanoengineering. 3: 16091.
