Elfick, Alistair

Rosser, Susan

Warne, Alexander

2020-05-01T12:24:58Z

2020-05-01T12:24:58Z

2020-07-03

Development of microfluidic devices for automated cell culture and integrated experiments offers a valuable evolution of biological laboratory practice. The strengths of 3D printing – versatile fabrication, low-cost and ease of use – provide a solution to difficulties in the fabrication of complex single and multi-layer devices. This work assesses the ability of a desktop W2P SolFlex350 resin printer to produce sub-200µm features necessary to replicate device designs currently created using traditional photolithography and multi-layer soft lithography. It is shown that features required for sub-200µm channel production are not viable using this 3D printer, but there is scope for further development of micro and milli-fluidics using desktop 3D printing. 3D printing to remove the need for layer-bonding in complex fluidic devices would enable increased complexity of device design. The possibility of using this to incorporate Raman spectroscopy as a non-invasive, label-free cell sorting mechanism in a continuous microfluidic cell culture device (chemostat) is explored both by assessing the capabilities of the 3D printer, and by evaluating the signal strength of fluorine-carbon bonds as a potential natural marker for Raman-based directed evolution. Organofluorine compounds were shown to produce detectable signals in aqueous solution but further research is necessary to enable detection at rates suitable for this type of device.

https://hdl.handle.net/1842/37028

http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/329

en

The University of Edinburgh

microfluidics

3D printing

microfluidic fabrication

evaluation

W2P SolFlex350 3D printer

Evaluating the Way2Production SolFlex350 Digital Light Projection 3D printer as a fabrication technology for microfluidics

Thesis or Dissertation

Doctoral

MPhil Master of Philosophy