Combination of PDMS microfilters and micromixers based on flexible thermoplastic films for size sorting and mixing of microparticles

Abstract

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. We present a study for the development of flexible microfilters based on sealing microstructured poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) to different functionalized thermoplastic films [polyimide (PI), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)]. The microfilter was manufactured by soft-lithography and replica molding and then combined with plasma activation and chemical treatment using 3-(aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES). To demonstrate the functionality of the PDMS microfilters, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles (MPS) were filtered through the microfluidic device based on the three thermoplastic films. Subsequently, the mixing capabilities of a passive PDMS micromixer was observed with the injection of polymeric MPS (fluorescent and nonfluorescent) as fluidic mixers are not generally effective at mixing particles. On mixing nonfluorescent MPS (∼<10-30 μm in diameter) a mixing performance of 13.3% at 5 mm was observed. Therefore, a PDMS microfiltering device was integrated with a PDMS micromixer using a simple and cost effective home-made polymeric connector for filtration at a size sorting of 11 μm. The results exhibit that the combination of the two microfluidic devices can be achieved with size sorting and mixing of MPS with an improved mixing performance of 62.5% at 3 mm.