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. 2022 Jul 17;13(7):1131.
doi: 10.3390/mi13071131.

Microwave-Assisted Solvent Bonding for Polymethyl Methacrylate Microfluidic Device

Chia-Wen Tsao  1 , Chang-Yen Chang  1 , Po-Yen Chien  1
Affiliations

Microwave-Assisted Solvent Bonding for Polymethyl Methacrylate Microfluidic Device

Chia-Wen Tsao et al. Micromachines (Basel). .

Abstract

This paper demonstrated a microwave-assisted solvent bonding method that uses organic solvent to seal the thermoplastic substrates with microwave assistance. This direct bonding is a simple and straightforward process that starts with solvent application followed by microwave irradiation without the need for expensive facilities or complex procedures. The organic solvent applied at the bonding interface is used in dissolving and dielectric heating of the thermoplastic surfaces to seal the thermoplastic substrates under microwave assistance. We evaluated acetone and ethanol to seal the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microfluidic device. The bonding performance, such as bonding coverage, geometry stability, and bonding strength (tensile) were observed and compared with the oven-heating and non-heating control experiments under the same force applications. Results showed that the microwave-assisted solvent bonding method presents a high bonding yield (maximum > 99%) and bonding strength (maximum ~2.77 MPa) without microchannel distortion, which can be used for various microfluidic applications.

Keywords: microwave heating; polymer microfluidics; solvent bonding; thermoplastic bonding.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Microchannel fabrication by micromilling. (a) parallel microchannel design. (b) schematic of desktop router. (c) image of desktop router.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Experiment setup of tensile strength measurement.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Schematic illustration of microwave-assisted solvent bonding procedures, and (b) sequential images of bonding procedure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Schematic illustration of microwave-assisted solvent bonding procedures, and (b) sequential images of bonding procedure.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic illustration of microwave-assisted solvent bonding by (a) solvent activation and (b) microwave irradiation mechanism.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Contact angle measurements of 25~100%; (a) acetone, (b) ethanol concentrations of PMMA surface.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Bonding coverage image of PMMA microchannels with different annealing methods and concentrations for: (a) acetone, and (b) ethanol. (c) summarizes the bonding coverages with different acetone and ethanol concentrations. The error bars in the figure are obtained from more than 3 individual experiments. The microscope images shown in (a) and (b) were taken by an inverted microscope (Nikon Eclipse Ti, Nikon Corp. Tokyo, Japan). Microwave radiation time was 130 s.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Cross-sectional images of PMMA microchannel with different (a) acetone, and (b) ethanol concentrations.
Figure 8
Figure 8
(a) Bonding strength measurements for microwave, oven-heating, and non-heating conditions (75% concentration), and (b) shows bonding strength measurements with different organic solvent concentrations ranging from 25~75%. The error bars in the figure were obtained from more than 3 individual experiments.
Figure 9
Figure 9
(a) Multiplex parrel microfluidic device bonded by a microwave-assisted solvent bonding process (chip size: 3 × 5 cm). (b) The bonding strength with different microwave irradiation times from 70 to 250 s. The error bars in the figure were obtained from more than 3 individual experiments. (c) Large (10 × 10 cm) PMMA substrate bonding with ethanol (left) and acetone (right). Both ethanol and acetone concentrations were 50%, and microwave irradiation time was 130 s.
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