【题目】用于化学惰性微流体阀和泵的聚四氟乙烯薄膜

【作者】William H. Grover1, Marcio G. von Muhlen1, and Scott R. Manalis

【摘要】我们提出了一种在玻璃微流控装置中制造化学惰性特氟隆微流控阀和泵的简单方法。这些结构是模仿单一的膜阀和泵，利用夹在两个蚀刻玻璃晶片之间的无特征的聚二甲基硅氧基膜烷（PDMS）。PDMS有限的化学相容性使得我们需要研究微流控装置的替代材料。先前的工作表明，旋涂覆非晶态氟聚合物和聚四氟聚合物层压板可以在整体膜阀和泵中制造并取代PDMS。然而，制造这些自旋涂层特四氟隆薄膜和层压板的复杂过程可能会妨碍它们在许多研究和制造环境中的使用。作为一种替代方案，我们证明了市售的氟化乙烯-丙烯（FEP）聚四氟乙烯薄膜可用于制造玻璃微流控装置中的化学惰性单片膜阀和泵。本文介绍的FEP聚四氟乙烯阀门和泵制造简单，功能类似于PDMS公司的同类阀门，在长期使用时保持其性能，并且能几乎抵抗所有的化学物质。这些结构将促进芯片上的实验室研究，涉及大量与天然PDMS微流控设备不相兼容的化学物质。

[Title] Teflon films for chemically-inert microfluidic valves and pumps

[Authors] William H. Grover1, Marcio G. von Muhlen1, and Scott R. Manalis

[Abstract] We present a simple method for fabricating chemically-inert Teflon microfluidic valves and pumps in glass microfluidic devices. These structures are modeled after monolithic membrane valves and pumps that utilize a featureless polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane sandwiched between two etched glass wafers. The limited chemical compatibility of PDMS has necessitated research into alternative materials for microfluidic devices. Previous work has shown that spincoated amorphous fluoropolymers and Teflon-fluoropolymer laminates can be fabricated and substituted for PDMS in monolithic membrane valves and pumps for space flight applications. However, the complex process for fabricating these spin-coated Teflon films and laminates may preclude their use in many research and manufacturing contexts. As an alternative, we show that commercially-available fluorinated ethylene-propylene (FEP) Teflon films can be used to fabricate chemically-inert monolithic membrane valves and pumps in glass microfluidic devices. The FEP Teflon valves and pumps presented here are simple to fabricate, function similarly to their PDMS counterparts, maintain their performance over extended use, and are resistant to virtually all chemicals. These structures should facilitate lab-on-a-chip research involving a vast array of chemistries that are incompatible with native PDMS microfluidic devices.