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Our paper "Recent Progresses in Microfabricating Perfluorinated Polymers (Teflons) and the Asso


Our article entitled "Recent progresses in microfabricating perfluorinated polymers (Teflons) and the associated new applications in microfluidics" has been officially published in Microphysiological Systems (MPS) in September 2018 (http://mps.amegroups.com/article/view/4745/5531)

Thjs article could be cited as: Wang Y, Chen S, Sun H, Li W, Hu C, Ren K. Recent progresses in microfabricating perfluorinated polymers (Teflons) and the associated new applications in microfluidics. Microphysiol Syst 2018;2:6

Microfluidic technology has been rapidly developed and widely used in different fields such as biology, biophysics, chemistry, optofluidics, etc. Nowadays, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is the most broadly used material in fabrication of microfluidic devices on account of its advantages in physical properties and fabrication ease. But it also shows limitations, such as poor chemical compatibility, absorption of small molecules, leaching of oligomers. The selection of materials then turns to plastics, for example, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polycarbonate (PC), polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and poly-vinylchloride (PVC). They are diversified, reusable, and low-cost. Nevertheless, they all have drawbacks in one aspect or another and the improvements in inertness, adsorption and leaching problems are limited. These weaknesses narrowing their applications in device fabrication and microfluidic cell culture. Then perfluoropolymers (i.e., Teflon materials), the well-known family of plastics, which have been used and developed for a long history, came into our view. They are famous for their excellent non-stick property, distinct chemical inertness as well as good physical properties. More importantly, these materials solve the above problems of PDMS in microfluidic device fabrication. However, owing to the difficulty in microfabrication Teflons have not been used for microfluidic devices until recently.

This progress report presents the developing progress of Teflon plastics in the fabrication of microstructures and microfluidic devices. Starting with the reasons why Teflon materials were employed as chip material, it shows the steps in utilization of them (from amorphous Teflons to crystallized and semi-crystallized Teflons) through summarizing previous studies on the applications (such as coatings, stamps, and chip fabrication) of Teflon materials while discussing their advantages over others. In the meantime, our group’s progress in fabricating microfluidic devices using Teflon has been incorporated in the discussion. For instance, we developed a new molding method, which solved the problems of Teflon processing in microscales, and gave birth to the first whole-Teflon microfluidic chip; followed by this, researchers started to carry out experiments that has demanding requirements in chemical-inertness, low absorption and biocompatibility on microfluidic devices. Making use of the materials’ outstanding inertness and non-sticking property, we utilized Teflon as templates and stamps for micro-fabrication too. At last, we discussed the prospect of Teflon in microfluidic field and micro-fabrication.


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