PDMS is enjoying continued and ever increasing popularity as the material of choice for microfluidic devices due to its low cost, ease of fabrication, oxygen permeability and optical transparency. However, PDMS's hydrophobicity and fast hydrophobic recovery after surface hydrophilization, attributed to its low glass transition temperature of less than -120 degrees C, negatively impacts on the performance of PDMS-based microfluidic device components. This issue has spawned a flurry of research to devise longer lasting surface modifications of PDMS, with particular emphasis on microfluidic applications. This review will present recent research on surface modifications of PDMS using techniques ranging from metal layer coatings and layer-by-layer depositions to dynamic surfactant treatments and the adsorption of amphipathic proteins. We will also discuss significant advances that have been made with a broad palette of gas-phase processing methods including plasma processing, sol-gel coatings and chemical vapor deposition. Finally, we will present examples of applications and future prospects of modified PDMS surfaces in microfluidics, in areas such as molecular separations, cell culture in microchannels and biomolecular detection via immunoassays.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/elps.200900475 | DOI Listing |
Bio Protoc
January 2025
Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA.
Neurons are highly polarized cells, with axons that may innervate distant target regions. In the brain, basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs) possess extensive axons that project to several target regions such as the cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala, and may be exposed to a specific microenvironment in their axon targets that may have retrograde effects on neuronal health. Interestingly, BFCNs express the pan-neurotrophin receptor p75NTR throughout life while also concomitantly co-expressing all Trk receptors, making them capable of responding to both mature and precursor neurotrophins to promote survival or apoptosis, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomed Microdevices
January 2025
Chakri Naruebodindra Medical Institute, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, 111 Suwannabhumi Canal Rd, Bang Pla, Bang Phli District, Samut Prakan, 10540, Thailand.
Microfluidic chips often face challenges related to the formation and accumulation of air bubbles, which can hinder their performance. This study investigated a bubble trapping mechanism integrated into microfluidic chip to address this issue. Microfluidic chip design includes a high shear stress section of fluid flow that can generate up to 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnal Chim Acta
February 2025
Department of Hygiene, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Ruská 87, 100 00, Prague 10, Czech Republic. Electronic address:
The review focuses on the design of detection cells, the use of microcontrollers for processing and evaluation of the detection signal, and the development of multi-detection systems for electromigration, liquid chromatography, flow-through and microfluidic techniques. A separate section is the introduction of modern 3D printing techniques and the use of new printing materials for the design of multidetection systems. In addition to traditional utilisation in separation techniques, new versions of contactless conductivity detectors are finding applications in FIA, SIA, portable and paper based analytical systems or as independent sensors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnal Chim Acta
February 2025
Institute of Microfluidic Chip Development in Biomedical Engineering, College of Information Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China. Electronic address:
Background: Digital recombinase polymerase amplification (dRPA) is an effective tool for the absolute quantification of nucleic acids and the detection of rare mutations. Due to the high viscosity or other physical properties of the reagent, this can compromise the accuracy and reproducibility of detection results, which limits the broader adoption and practical application of this technology. In this study, we developed an asymmetric contact angle digital isothermal detection (ACA-DID) chip and optimized the ACA-DID chip structure to achieve rapid digital recombinase polymerase amplification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Applied Physics, National Defense Academy, Hashirimizu 1-10-20, Yokosuka 239-0802, Kanagawa, Japan.
Dielectrophoresis (DEP) cell separation technology is an effective means of separating target cells which are only marginally present in a wide variety of cells. To develop highly efficient cell separation devices, detailed analysis of the nonuniform electric field's intensity distribution within the device is needed, as it affects separation performance. Here we analytically expressed the distributions of the electric field and DEP force in a parallel-plate cell separation DEP device by employing electrostatic analysis through the Fourier series method.
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