Fabrication of a flexible and disposable microreactor using a dry film photoresist

In this paper, we demonstrate that a low-cost flexible microreactor can be manufactured using a dry film photoresist in conjunction with photolithographic and hot roll lamination techniques. A microfluidic flow path and sample reservoir patterns were prefabricated in a dry film photoresist tape using traditional photolithographic methods. This tape was sandwiched between two plastic films - wells were prepouched on the cover film - that were bonded upon passage through a hot roll laminator. A simple Plexiglas reactor holder was designed and constructed to use in evaluating the flexible microchip reactor. We demonstrate a chemical synthesis of polyaniline that was performed with this polymeric microreactor using a hydrodynamic flow control system. The fabrication of this microreactor suggests that there is great potential for designing and prototyping disposable microscale reaction systems using dry film photoresist for a range of chemical and biochemical syntheses.