Saitta Lorena, Cutuli Emanuela, Celano Giovanni, Tosto Claudio, Stella Giovanna, Cicala Gianluca, Bucolo Maide
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Department of Electrical Electronic and Computer Science Engineering, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jun 15;15(12):2690. doi: 10.3390/polym15122690.
In this work, a quadratic polynomial regression model was developed to aid practitioners in the determination of the refractive index value of transparent 3D printable photocurable resins usable for micro-optofluidic applications. The model was experimentally determined by correlating empirical optical transmission measurements (the ) to known refractive index values (the ) of photocurable materials used in optics, thus obtaining a related regression equation. In detail, a novel, simple, and cost-effective experimental setup is proposed in this study for the first time for collecting the transmission measurements of smooth 3D printed samples (roughness ranging between 0.04 and 2 μm). The model was further used to determine the unknown refractive index value of novel photocurable resins applicable in vat photopolymerization (VP) 3D printing techniques for manufacturing micro-optofluidic (MoF) devices. In the end, this study proved how knowledge of this parameter allowed us to compare and interpret collected empirical optical data from microfluidic devices made of more traditional materials, i.e., Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), up to novel 3D printable photocurable resins suitable for biological and biomedical applications. Thus, the developed model also provides a quick method to evaluate the suitability of novel 3D printable resins for MoF device fabrication within a well-defined range of refractive index values (1.56; 1.70).
在这项工作中，开发了一种二次多项式回归模型，以帮助从业者确定可用于微流控光学应用的透明3D可打印光固化树脂的折射率值。该模型通过将经验光学透射测量值（）与光学中使用的光固化材料的已知折射率值（）相关联进行实验确定，从而获得相关的回归方程。详细而言，本研究首次提出了一种新颖、简单且经济高效的实验装置，用于收集光滑3D打印样品（粗糙度在0.04至2μm之间）的透射测量值。该模型进一步用于确定适用于制造微流控（MoF）器件的光固化3D打印技术（即光固化聚合（VP））中新型光固化树脂的未知折射率值。最后，本研究证明了该参数的知识如何使我们能够比较和解释从由更传统材料（即聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS））制成的微流控器件收集的经验光学数据，直至适用于生物和生物医学应用的新型3D可打印光固化树脂。因此，所开发的模型还提供了一种快速方法，可在定义明确的折射率值范围（1.56；1.70）内评估新型3D可打印树脂用于制造MoF器件的适用性。
