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A lithography-free procedure for fabricating three-dimensional microchannels using hydrogel molds

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Abstract

We present a lithography-free procedure for fabricating intrinsically three-dimensional smooth-walled microchannels within poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer using hydrogel molds. In the fabrication process, small pieces of agarose gel (“wires” or “chips”) are embedded in uncured PDMS composite, arranged in the shape of the desired microchannels, and used as molds to form the microchannels. The point of the process is that molds for creating junctions of microchannels such as T-junctions or cross-junctions can be robustly formed by simply grafting gel wires in uncured PDMS composite without using adhesive agents. The technical advantage of this method is that three-dimensional microstructures such as microchannels with circular cross sections, three-dimensionally arranged junctions or interchanges of microchannels can be flexibly designed and fabricated with a straightforward procedure without the need for any specialized equipment or layer-by-layer assemblage processes. This method provides a low-cost, green procedure for fabricating microfluidic devices and promises to make microfluidic processes more accessible and easy to implement in a variety of scientific fields.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Kyouhei Aketagawa and Masaki Takamizo at the University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, for fruitful discussions and for encouraging us to conduct the preliminary experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-8563, Japan

    Hirotada Hirama, Takahiro Odera, Toru Torii & Hiroyuki Moriguchi

Authors
  1. Hirotada Hirama
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  2. Takahiro Odera
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  3. Toru Torii
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  4. Hiroyuki Moriguchi
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Correspondence to Hiroyuki Moriguchi.

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Hirama, H., Odera, T., Torii, T. et al. A lithography-free procedure for fabricating three-dimensional microchannels using hydrogel molds. Biomed Microdevices 14, 689–697 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-012-9649-4

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