Combining Wax Printing with Hot Embossing for the Design of Geometrically Well-Defined Microfluidic Papers.

A simple, efficient, and repeatable combination of wax printing and hot embossing is reported. This combination yields microfluidic channels in paper, where fluid transport driven by paper-intrinsic capillary forces takes place inside the noncompressed areas, whereas embossed and wax-bonded areas serve as hydrophobic barriers laterally confining the fluid flow. Lab-made paper sheets first coated with a hydrophobic wax were hot-embossed with a tailor-made metal stamp.

Glassomer-Processing Fused Silica Glass Like a Polymer.

Fused silica glass is one of the most important high-performance materials for scientific research, industry, and society. However due to its high chemical and thermal resistance as well as high hardness, fused silica glass is notoriously difficult to structure. This work introduces Glassomer, a solid nanocomposite, which can be structured using polymer molding and subtractive technologies at submicrometer resolution.

Self-Cleaning Microcavity Array for Photovoltaic Modules.

Development of self-cleaning coatings is of great interest for the photovoltaic (PV) industry, as soiling of the modules can significantly reduce their electrical output and increase operational costs. We fabricated flexible polymeric films with novel disordered microcavity array (MCA) topography from fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) by hot embossing. Because of their superhydrophobicity with water contact angles above 150° and roll-off angles below 5°, the films possess self-cleaning properties over a wide range of tilt angles, starting at 10°, and contaminant sizes (30-900 μm).

Tacky cyclic olefin copolymer: a biocompatible bonding technique for the fabrication of microfluidic channels in COC.

Cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) is widely used in microfluidics due to its UV-transparency, its biocompatibility and high chemical resistance. Here we present a fast and cost-effective solvent bonding technique, which allows for the efficient bonding of protein-patterned COC structures. The bonding process is carried out at room temperature and takes less than three minutes.