Chuanhua Duan

Facile and Scalable Fabrication of PDMS-Glass Nanochannel Devices

Prof. Chuanhua Duan Mechanical Engineering
Prof. Chuanhua Duan, Mechanical Engineering

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The goal of this project is to develop a facile and scalable fabrication method to create a new type of nanofluidic devices, i.e. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-glass nanochannel devices. Nanofluidic devices are fluidic devices that include one or an array of nanoscale conduits, including nanochannels, nanotubes or nanopores. They have attracted great attention in lab-on-a-chip applications because of nanoscale confinement induced new transport phenomena and the resulting novel fluidic functions. Currently, nanofluidic devices are mainly fabricated by the etching-and-bonding method or the sacrificial layer releasing method, both of which require many complicated fabrication steps and high-cost instruments. Here we propose to combine three simple MEMS fabrication techniques including PDMS spin coating, photolithography assisted PDMS patterning and PDMS-glass plasma bonding, to creat! e PDMS-glass nanochannel devices with well-defined geometry. The participants will fabricate these nanochannel devices and test their bonding strengths using capillary filling and pressure driven flow. They will also use these new nanofluidic devices to study nanoscale ion transport. If time allows, I will ask them to use these devices to prepare patterned polymer thin films, which is another ongoing research project in my lab.

LEARNING GOALS

  • Learn basic MEMS fabrication techniques, including spin coating, lithography and oxygen plasma cleaning.
  • Learn how to test bonding strengths of nanofluidic devices using pressure-driven flow and capillary-filling
  • Learn how to do ionic conductance measurements
  • Achieve a basic understanding of surface-charge-governed ion transport in nanochannels.

Learn more about Professor Duan’s work on his lab website.