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Surface modification-assisted bonding of 2D polymer-based nanofluidic devices

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Abstract

An oxygen plasma-assisted thermal bonding technique is demonstrated for sealing a two-dimensional (2D) polymer-based nanofluidic device. A polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrate with 2D nanochannels and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) cover plate with microchannels was treated with optimized oxygen plasma parameters: chamber pressure of 1 mbar, power of 30 W and time of 2 min. The effective bonding area and bonding strength were significantly improved under the optimized bonding temperature of 70 °C, pressure of 0.5 MPa and time of 10 min. Nanoindentation experiments showed that oxygen plasma treatment did not change the PET or the PMMA modulus, which provides a novel sampling method to observe the profile structures of the deformation of 2D nanochannels by scanning electron microscope. The 2D PMMA–PET nanofluidic device with 89 (±2) nm wide and 84 (±2) nm deep nanochannels was successfully bonded under optimized process parameters. The total dimension loss of the 2D nanochannels was estimated to be 2 (±4) nm in width and 12 (±4) nm in depth. The deformation loss in depth is mainly attributed to sagging of the PET cover plate (10 nm) during the thermal bonding process. Experiments with Rhodamine B solution showed good sealing properties of the polymer-based 2D nanofluidic device without leakages and clogging. This bonding process provides a high potential technique for fabrication of 2D polymer-based nanofluidic device with low deformation loss, low cost and high throughput.

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Acknowledgments

This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 91023046, No. 51075059) and Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (SRFDP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Micro/Nano Technology and Systems of Liaoning Province, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    E. Cheng, Zhifu Yin, Helin Zou & Li Chen

  2. Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Helin Zou

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  1. E. Cheng
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  2. Zhifu Yin
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  3. Helin Zou
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  4. Li Chen
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Correspondence to Helin Zou.

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Cheng, E., Yin, Z., Zou, H. et al. Surface modification-assisted bonding of 2D polymer-based nanofluidic devices. Microfluid Nanofluid 18, 527–535 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1451-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1451-6

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