Surface induced adaptive switching in paper microfluidics.

Project: PhD

Project Details

Description

In this research, the modification of cellulose paper to create adaptive switches on the surface and the integration of these modified papers in 3D packages will be investigated for on-site water and food analysis in order to obtain simple, cheap and smart test strips for nonexpert end-users. Initially, the paper surface wettability will be tuned via non-responsive modification to achieve a critical wicking concentration of ethanol. Then, it will be continued with the further modification with responsive polymer brushes to explore adaptive wettability of surfaces to the different stimuli such as pH and ionic strength. It is expected that the surface becomes a self-selective, i.e. self-directing, instrument during capillary action of liquid samples. Hence, separation of different compounds or elimination of interfering ingredients, which normally requires expertise in analytical chemistry, will already be done by the device itself before the target components are analyzed at readout points. The third step will be the preparation of 2D fluidic channels that restrict the fluid flow by adding hydrophobic walls to the paper via wax printing. Finally, these channels will be integrated inside a 3D-printed device to produce the end-product for the application. This application is aimed to develop user-friendly device, which can be possibly tested by non-experts.
StatusActive
Effective start/end date1/08/20 → …

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