A Miniaturized SPLITT System for On-Line Protein Separation

Abstract

The development of a microfluidic module for on-line protein separation is presented in this paper. The device is based on the SPLITT (Split flow Thin fractionation) technique and the separation of proteins is electrically driven by means of two platinum electrodes included in the structure of the microdevice. The microfluidic network is realized by means of a thin dry film structure, Ordyl SY 355, (thermo-compression lamination), laminated on three levels, which is patterned through a photolithographic technique. The device has been tested with a Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) solution, through absorbance measurements with a spectrophotometer, with best achieved separation at the outlet of 40%, measured as relative concentration unbalance at output channels.

Keywords

• sample preparation
• protein separation
• microfluidics
• dry film
• SPLITT
• electrophoresis