3D Rapid Prototyping Technology (RPT) as a powerful tool in microfluidic development

Abstract

A novel method, a 3D printing technique, in particular, acrylic photopolymer material-based Rapid Prototyping (RPT) have been used to 1) fabricate molds for PDMS (PolyDiMethylSiloxane) casting; 2) fabricate RPT-based microfluidics and 3) fabricate RPT-based research instrument platforms. 3D RPT-based molds have been fabricated in order to cast a PDMS flow cell for a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) instrument, and to cast a PDMS chamber for cell lysis in a nanobiological sensor. 3D printing has been utilized to create and test several acrylic photopolymer resin-based prototypes for different microfluidic structures (chaotic mixers, reagent and buffer reservoirs, fluid homogenizers) to be deployed for gynecological cervical sample preparation. Besides, RPT technique has been used also to fabricate platform elements for various microfluidic applications.