Fabrication of a Polydimethylsiloxane Fluidic Chip Using a Sacrificial Template Made by Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printing and Application for Flow-injection Analysis

Abstract

Fluidic chip fabrication technologies using three-dimensional (3D) printing have received broad attention recently. Herein, we describe a new method for fabricating polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fluidic chips using a 3D-printed polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) template and polymer coating. In this method, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was coated on the 3D-printed template. This coated template was immersed in liquid PDMS, and subsequently the PDMS was cured. Space can be created between the template and PDMS by removing this liquid PEG from the channel. This space renders template removal easier. A flow path is formed by dissolving the template with a solvent. These PDMS chips are used for flow injection measurement.