I/UCRC FRP: MicroSURF (MicroSuperhydrophobicUltraRapidFluidics) for Enhanced Diagnostics

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

By leveraging the unique physics of flow on non-wetting superhydrophobic surfaces, this research seeks to overcome the persistent bottlenecks associated with manipulating fluids at extremely small volumes (microfluidics). While microfluidics holds much promise for early and deployable disease diagnostics, practical challenges associated with such precision manipulations have heretofore hindered its widespread dissemination. Microfluidics on superhydrophobic surfaces can solve many disease diagnostic problems by enabling: loss-less sample manipulations, novel hydrodynamic properties, extremely fast and controlled flows, and enhanced mixing. The knowledge and insight generated through this research will significantly improve and propel the field of microfluidics forward by elucidating the fundamental mechanisms of enhanced flow through engineered surface effects. It will also enable practical implementation and deployment of these mechanisms for real-world impact. Broader impacts of the work include the potential for mass manufacture superhydrophobic surfaces in commodity plastics and integration of them into microfluidic devices already in use. Additional impacts include K-12 science and engineering outreach programs, one entitled "A Hundred Tiny Hands" developed for children (ages 5 and up) where they can design and make their own superhydrophobic building blocks as part of our 'Inventor's Toolboxes' while learning modern science and engineering concepts with our accompanying comic books. This research involves the creation and implementation of superhydrophobic surfaces in commodity plastics on the large scale with standard roll to roll manufacturing, which allows the optimization of such substrates and enables the ability to inexpensively integrate them into standard microfluidics devices. This research systematically designs and optimizes both superhydrophobic surfaces and microfluidic designs to best leverage surface enhancements for key microfluidic-enabled diagnostic functionalities. Goals of the research are to create mass manufacturable configurable superhydrophobic surfaces tailored for specific microfluidic applications so they can be integrated into commercial microfluidic devices by probing the physics at the micro- and nano-scale. Other goals include pushing the current limits of our understanding of the physics of microfluidics, with an outcome that is physically tangible: i.e., mass manufactured diagnostic devices with significantly improved performance due to integrated superhydrophobic surfaces.