Department of Physics, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
Biomicrofluidics. 2010 Jun 17;4(2):026504. doi: 10.1063/1.3431715.
Poly(dimethylsiloxane) or PDMS is an excellent material for replica molding, widely used in microfluidics research. Its low elastic modulus, or high deformability, assists its release from challenging molds, such as those with high feature density, high aspect ratios, and even negative sidewalls. However, owing to the same properties, PDMS-based microfluidic devices stretch and change shape when fluid is pushed or pulled through them. This paper shows how severe this change can be and gives a simple method for limiting this change that sacrifices few of the desirable characteristics of PDMS. A thin layer of PDMS between two rigid glass substrates is shown to drastically reduce pressure-induced shape changes while preserving deformability during mold separation and gas permeability.
聚二甲基硅氧烷(PDMS)是一种非常适合复制成型的材料,在微流控研究中得到了广泛的应用。其低弹性模量或高可变形性有助于其从具有挑战性的模具中释放出来,例如具有高密度特征、高纵横比甚至负侧壁的模具。然而,由于具有相同的特性,基于 PDMS 的微流控设备在流体被推动或拉动通过时会拉伸和改变形状。本文展示了这种变化可能有多严重,并提供了一种简单的方法来限制这种变化,同时牺牲 PDMS 的很少一些理想特性。实验证明,在两个刚性玻璃基板之间的一层薄 PDMS 可以大大降低压力引起的形状变化,同时在脱模和气体渗透性过程中保持可变形性。