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BY 4.0 license Open Access Published by De Gruyter September 18, 2019

Surface modification of Polydimethylsiloxane by hydrogels for microfluidic applications

  • Ralf Kemkemer EMAIL logo , Zhang Zenghao , Yang Linxiao , Kiriaki Athanasopulu , Kerstin Frey , Zhishan Cui , Haijia Su and Liu Luo

Abstract

In vitro, hydrogel-based ECMs for functionalizing surfaces of various material have played an essential role in mimicking native tissue matrix. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is widely used to build microfluidic or organ-on-chip devices compatible with cells due to its easy handling in cast replication. Despite such advantages, the limitation of PDMS is its hydrophobic surface property. To improve wettability of PDMS-based devices, alginate, a naturally derived polysaccharide, was covalently bound to the PDMS surface. This alginate then crosslinked further hydrogel onto the PDMS surface in desired layer thickness. Hydrogel-modified PDMS was used for coating a topography chip system and in vitro investigation of cell growth on the surfaces. Moreover, such hydrophilic hydrogel-coated PDMS is utilized in a microfluidic device to prevent unspecific absorption of organic solutions. Hence, in both exemplary studies, PDMS surface properties were modified leading to improved devices.

Published Online: 2019-09-18
Published in Print: 2019-09-01

© 2019 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

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