Fused Deposition Modeling of Chemically Resistant Microfluidic Chips in Polyvinylidene Fluoride
Christof Rein,
Leonhard Hambitzer,
Zahra Soraya,
Han Zhang,
Henning J. Jessen,
Frederik Kotz-Helmer,
Bastian E. Rapp
Affiliations
Christof Rein
Laboratory of Process Engineering, NeptunLab, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Leonhard Hambitzer
Laboratory of Process Engineering, NeptunLab, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Zahra Soraya
Laboratory of Process Engineering, NeptunLab, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Han Zhang
Institute of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Henning J. Jessen
Institute of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Frederik Kotz-Helmer
Laboratory of Process Engineering, NeptunLab, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Bastian E. Rapp
Laboratory of Process Engineering, NeptunLab, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is well suited for microfluidic prototyping due to its low investment cost and a wide range of accessible materials. Nevertheless, most commercial FDM materials exhibit low chemical and thermal stability. This reduces the scope of applications and limits their use in research and development, especially for on-chip chemical synthesis. In this paper, we present FDM fabrication of microfluidic chips with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) for applications that require high thermal or chemical resistance. Embedded microchannels with a minimum channel width and heights of ~200 µm × 200 µm were fabricated, and the resistance against common solvents was analyzed. A procedure was developed to increase the optical transmission to result in translucent components by printing on glass. Chips for fluid mixing were printed, as well as microreactors that were packed with a catalytically active phase and used for acetal deprotection with a conversion of more than 99%. By expanding the use of fluorinated polymers to FDM printing, previously challenging microfluidic applications will be conducted with ease at the lab scale.
