Chair of Food Sciences, Institute of Nutritional Science, and Interdisciplinary Research Center (IFZ), Justus Liebig University Giessen , Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
Anal Chem. 2017 Feb 7;89(3):2116-2122. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b04813. Epub 2017 Jan 23.
On the basis of open-source packages, 3D printing of thin silica gel layers is demonstrated as proof-of-principle for use in planar chromatography. A slurry doser was designed to replace the plastic extruder of an open-source Prusa i3 printer. The optimal parameters for 3D printing of layers were studied, and the planar chromatographic separations on these printed layers were successfully demonstrated with a mixture of dyes. The layer printing process was fast. For printing a 0.2 mm layer on a 10 cm × 10 cm format, it took less than 5 min. It was affordable, i.e., the running costs for producing such a plate were less than 0.25 Euro and the investment costs for the modified hardware were 630 Euro. This approach demonstrated not only the potential of the 3D printing environment in planar chromatography but also opened new avenues and new perspectives for tailor-made plates, not only with regard to layer materials and their combinations (gradient plates) but also with regard to different layer shapes and patterns. As such an example, separations on a printed plane layer were compared with those obtained from a printed channeled layer. For the latter, 40 channels were printed in parallel on a 10 cm × 10 cm format for the separation of 40 samples. For producing such a channeled plate, the running costs were below 0.04 Euro and the printing process took only 2 min. All modifications of the device and software were released open-source to encourage reuse and improvements and to stimulate the users to contribute to this technology. By this proof-of-principle, another asset was demonstrated to be integrated into the Office Chromatography concept, in which all relevant steps for online miniaturized planar chromatography are performed by a single device.
基于开源软件，我们展示了如何使用 3D 打印技术来制作薄硅胶层，这是用于平面色谱法的原理验证。我们设计了一种浆料分配器来替代开源 Prusa i3 打印机的塑料挤出机。我们研究了 3D 打印层的最佳参数，并成功地使用染料混合物在这些打印层上进行了平面色谱分离。层打印过程非常快。例如，对于在 10cm×10cm 格式上打印 0.2mm 厚的层，打印过程不到 5 分钟。而且成本较低，例如，生产这种板的运行成本不到 0.25 欧元，而修改硬件的投资成本为 630 欧元。这种方法不仅展示了 3D 打印环境在平面色谱法中的潜力，而且为定制化的平板开辟了新的途径和视角，不仅涉及到层材料及其组合（梯度板），还涉及到不同的层形状和图案。例如，我们将打印平面层上的分离与打印通道层上的分离进行了比较。对于后者，我们在 10cm×10cm 的格式上并行打印了 40 个通道，用于分离 40 个样品。生产这种通道板的运行成本低于 0.04 欧元，打印过程仅需 2 分钟。设备和软件的所有修改都以开源的方式发布，以鼓励重复使用和改进，并激励用户为这项技术做出贡献。通过这一原理验证，我们展示了如何将另一个资产整合到 Office Chromatography 概念中，在这个概念中，所有在线微型化平面色谱法的相关步骤都可以由单个设备完成。
