Affiliation:
1. Centre for NEMS and Nanophotonics, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras 1 , Chennai 600036, India
2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras 2 , Chennai 600036, India
Abstract
SU-8 is an epoxy-based, biocompatible thermosetting polymer, which has been utilized mainly to fabricate biomedical devices and scaffolds. In this study, thin, single-layered, freestanding tuneable porous SU-8 membranes were microfabricated and surface hydrophilized for efficient bioseparation. Unlike the previous thicker membranes of 200–300 μm, these thin SU-8 membranes of 50–60 μm thickness and pores with 6–10 μm diameter were fabricated and tested for blood-plasma separation, without any additional support structure. The method is based on making a patterned SU-8 layer by electrospin coating and UV lithography on a sacrificial polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet attached to a silicon wafer. Poor adhesion between PET and SU-8 aid in the convenient release of the thin porous membranes with uniform pore formation. The single-layered self-supporting membranes were strong, safe, sterilizable, reusable, and suitable for plasma separation and postfermentation broth enrichment.
Funder
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
Ministry of Electronics and Information technology