Thin PDMS films using long spin times or tert-butyl alcohol as a solvent.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 19238212.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0004572 and PMC identifier 2642993.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films are frequently used in "lab on a chip" devices as flexible membranes. The common solvent used to dilute the PDMS for thin films is hexane, but hexane can swell the underlying PDMS substrate. A better solvent would be one that dissolves uncured PDMS but doesn't swell the underlying substrate. Here, we present protocols and spin curves for two alternatives to hexane dilution: longer spin times and dilution in tert-butyl alcohol. The thickness of the PDMS membranes under different spin speeds, spin times, and PDMS concentrations was measured using an optical profilometer. The use of tert-butyl alcohol to spin thin PDMS films does not swell the underlying PDMS substrate, and we have used these films to construct multilayer PDMS devices.
Medical subject headings
- Dimethylpolysiloxanes
- Membranes, Artificial