Electrowetting induced µ-droplet actuation using Fluoropor in digital microfluidics (DMF)

Abstract

Digital microfluidics (DMF) represent an important subfield of microfluidics due to the ability to resolve complex processes into a sequence of programmable discrete steps with small liquid volumes. The most commonly used surfaces for liquid actuation have an unstructured hydrophobic layer as the top-coat having biofouling as a main obstacle. In this work we present a novel material, Fluoropor a nanofoamed Fluoropolymer that can be easily fabricated, coated and utilized for DMF. Fluoropor-films were fabricated with different porosities simply by adjusting the ratio of added porogens. The fabricated films ware integrated in a commercial DMF-device and it was shown that droplets can be moved and merged on top of a 22 μm thick Fluoropor-coating.