Abstract
A simple method based on electric heating wires has been developed for the rapid fabrication of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) electrophoresis microchips in ordinary laboratories without the need for microfabrication facilities. A piece of stretched electric heating wire placed across the length of a PMMA plate along its midline was sandwiched between two microscope slides under pressure. Subsequently, alternating current was allowed to pass through the wire to generate heat to emboss a separation microchannel on the PMMA separation channel plate at room temperature. The injection channel was fabricated using the same procedure on a PMMA sheet that was perpendicular to the separation channel. The complete microchip was obtained by bonding the separation channel plate to the injection channel sheet, sealing the channels inside. The electric heating wires used in this work not only generated heat; they also served as templates for embossing the microchannels. The prepared microfluidic microchips have been successfully employed in the electrophoresis separation and detection of ions in connection with contactless conductivity detection.
SEM image illustrating the cross sections of an open microchannel in a PMMA channel plate. Also shown, in the inset, is a 3D image of the open channel
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Harrison DJ, Manz A, Fan Z, Ludi H, Widmer HM (1992) Anal Chem 64:1926–1932
Harrison DJ, Flury K, Seiler K, Fan Z, Effenhauser CS, Manz A (1993) Science 261:895–897
Pumera M, Merkoc A, Alegret S (2007) Electrophoresis 28:1274–1280
Crevillen AG, Pumera M, Gonzalez MC, Escarpa A (2009) Analyst 134:657–662
Crevillén AG, Ávila M, Pumera M, González MC, Escarpa A (2007) Anal Chem 79:7408–7415
Becker H, Gartner C (2000) Electrophoresis 20:12–26
Chen Y, Zhang LY, Chen G (2008) Electrophoresis 29:1801–1814
Soper SA, Ford SM, Qi S, McCarley RL, Kelly K, Murphy MC (2000) Anal Chem 72:643A–651A
Qi SZ, Liu XZ, Ford S, Barrows J, Thomas G, Kelly K, McCandless A, Lian K, Goettert J, Soper SA (2002) Lab Chip 2:88–95
Xu JD, Locascio L, Gaitan M, Lee CS (2000) Anal Chem 72:1930–1933
Sun XH, Peeni BA, Yang WC, Becerril HA, Woolley AT (2007) J Chromatogr A 1162:162–166
McCormick RM, Nelson RJ, AlonsoAmigo MG, Benvegnu J, Hooper HH (1997) Anal Chem 69:2626–2630
Piotter V, Hanemann T, Ruprecht R, Hausselt J (1997) Microsys Tech 3:129–138
Chenga JY, Wei CW, Hsua KH, Young TH (2004) Sen Actuat B 99:186–196
Yuan DJ, Das S (2007) J Appl Phy 101:24901
Brister PC, Weston KD (2005) Anal Chem 77:7478–7482
Muck A, Wang J, Jacobs M, Chen G, Chatrathi MP, Jurka V, Vyborny Z, Spillman SD, Sridharan G, Schoning MJ (2004) Anal Chem 76:2290–2297
Xu GX, Wang J, Chen Y, Zhang LY, Wang DR, Chen G (2006) Lab Chip 6:145–148
Chen ZF, Gao YH, Su RG, Li CW, Lin JM (2003) Electrophoresis 24:3246–3252
Chen YH, Chen SH (2001) Electrophoresis 21:165–170
Martynova L, Locascio LE, Gaitan M, Kramer G, Christensen RG, MacCrehan WA (1997) Anal Chem 69:4783–4789
Chen Y, Duan HT, Zhang LY, Chen G (2008) Electrophoresis 29:4922–4927
Huang X, Gordon M, Zare RN (1988) Anal Chem 60:1837–1838
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the NSFC (20875015, 20675017, and 20405002), the 863 Program of China (2007AA04Z309), the Shanghai Science Committee (2009JC1401400), the National Key Technology R&D Program (2006BAI19B02), and the Education Ministry of China (NCET-08-0134).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gan, Z., Yu, Z., Chen, Z. et al. Hot embossing of electrophoresis microchannels in PMMA substrates using electric heating wires. Anal Bioanal Chem 396, 2715–2720 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-3490-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-3490-5