Laser Cut Microfluidics Projects for

Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories

(525d)
November 11, 2015
Embracing Maker Space for ChE

Makerspaces in Our Curriculum

CH EN 1705 Freshmen Design Lab.
CH EN 4903 Projects Lab I
CH EN 4905 Projects Lab 2
Independent Study

CH EN 1705
Hands-On Design Modules
Basic DAQ
Spectrophotometer & Kinetics
Drug Release from Sphere & Mass Transfer
Photobioreactors & Microbial Growth
Biodiesel & Scale-Up
Environmental Concerns

Final Project:
Education
Research
Service

Senior Projects Lab Series

CH EN 4903

CH EN 4905

Three Lab Projects

Capstone Proposals

One memo report

Two long-form formal reports

Persuasive Presentation
Take an ethical stand on a current
social issue involving STEM.

Homework
Lab map
SACHE certificate
Data analysis

Research
Service
Education

Individual Proposals
Single page
Concept slide
Elevator pitch

Team Proposal
Team Capstone Project

Freshmen team members

Technical Presentations

Makerspace
Lab Safety
Can override every
assignments grade
All receive safety
training
All must pass
SACHEs Basics
of Laboratory Safety
Name badges

Dremel

Laser Cutter

Glassware,
Labeling, &
Micropipette

3D Printer
MIG Welder

SACHE Training
Hydrogen

Drills
Tools & Stockroom

Indicate training at a glance

New online tracking
http://vstem.org/user/hub.php

Job hazard analysis forms

Incident reporting forms

http://vstem.org/

Soldering

Why Laser Cutters?

Low barrier to entry.

Chem Es not know for skill with lathes

Versatile.

Can make whatever 2D shape you can draw.

Augmented with 3D printers.

Relatively safe.

Students not exposed to moving parts.

Relatively cool.

Its a laser cutter.

Laser Cutter Basics

Water-Cooled CO2 Laser reflected and
focused onto material.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/LaserCutter.jpg

Our

st
1

Choice of Laser Cutter

80 W Laser.
40 cm x 50 cm cut bed.
About $10k*.

Will cut:
Plastics**
Acrylic

Wood
Fabric
Paper

Will etch:
All that
Glass
Anodized Al

Still works great

But company out of business

Need to Expand
No tech support or warranty for existing laser
Lines forming behind
during lab periods
Needed for research
programs
Need something faster
and with more
capabilities

Our Next Choice of Laser Cutter

120 W Laser.
40 in x 28 in cut bed.
About $50k
Rotary attachment.
Will cut:
Plastics**
Acrylic

Will etch:
All that
Glass
Anodized Al

Wood
Fabric
Paper
Some thin metals

Laser Cutter Safety

Fire hazard
Laser focus
Appropriate material
Supervision

Hazard fumes
Proper ventilation
Restrict materials
E.g. no PVCs

Cooling system
Air assist

http://www.wired.com/2012/10/diy-laser-cutter/

Laser Cutter SOP

& Safety
After receiving 100% on the written test,
students must operate the cutter safely while
being supervised by an instructor.

Students
need
reminder
about
geometry

Design Software

Typically: DXF files.

Any CAD program.
Adobe Illustrator.
Inkscape.
Free
http://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape/

Different line colors control:

Laser speed.
Laser power.
Gradients.
Cut vs. engrave vs. etch.

Some of the Laser-Cut Variety

Why Microfluidics?
Students have a strong interest developing microfluidic experiments.
Five student groups have chosen to develop microfluidic final projects
over the last fours semesters.
1.

Can the laser cutter be used to microfluidics experiments?

2.

Micro fluidic mixing

3.

Micro fluidics with syringe pump

4.

Dean flow separators of microspheres

5.

Microreactors with alkalai bleaching of triphenylmethanes

Freshman Team Surprising success

Senior Team Couldnt stop leaking
Senior Team Couldnt stop leaking

Senior Team Couldnt stop leaking

Its tricky
with a laser
cutter
http://www.microfluidicfuture.com/what-is-microfluidics/

High school interns Success (with some help)

Great platform for illustrating core chemical engineering concepts.

Allows for a lot of student creativity.

Traditional Microfluidic
Channels
Traditionally made
using soft
lithography.
Requires equipment
to which our
students dont have
access.
Takes approximately
a day to complete a
channel.

Microfluidic assay for simultaneous culture of multiple

cell types on surfaces or within hydrogels
Yoojin Shin, Sewoon Han, Jessie S Jeon, Kyoko
Yamamoto, Ioannis K Zervantonakis, Ryo Sudo, Roger
D Kamm & Seok Chung, Nature Protocols 7, 1247
1259 (2012) doi:10.1038/nprot.2012.051

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Microfluidics.jpg
Dong Qin, Younan Xia & George M Whitesides

Nature Protocols 5, 491 - 502 (2010) Published online: 18 February 2010

doi:10.1038/nprot.2009.234

Student Project #1 Freshman Lab

How to pump through a microfluidics channel
without a proper pump?

Student Project #1 Freshman Lab

Student Project #1 Freshman Lab, Mixing

Acrylic Cutting Basics

1/16, 1/8, 1/4
We have cut up to 1 with 80 W laser,
(moving at 0.5 mm/sec).

Can cut or etch.

Cut out plates
Etch channels

Acrylic Bonder
Gel
Liquid

Aside: Attempt at Dean Flow Separation

Students used tape
to seal.
Bonder kept clogging
the channel.

Would not work long

enough to obtain
results.
This is not easy

How to Cut the Channel?

Channel
Cut partway through:
Lower laser power.
Faster speed.
V-shaped channel base.
Complicated optics.

Cut al the way through.

Higher power.
Slower speed.
Thicker channels (min of 1/16, 1.5 mm).
Clearer view of channel.

100 m Deep, 150 m Wide

How to Cut the Channel?

Moat

Channel plate
Channel

Add a mote

Cover plate

Channel Base

Access ports cut through

solid acrylic tubing

Add base plate

Access for
bonder

Access for
flow out

Access for
flow in

If channel is cut through.

Cover plate

How to Bond the Plates?

(Without clogging the microchannels)
Clamp plates together.
Inject liquid bonder around edge until it
saturates only the acrylic outside the mote.
Wait 15 min.
Insert acrylic tubing
into access ports.
Seal with gel bonder

Wait 15 min.

How to Bond the Plates?

(Without clogging the microchannels)
Clamp plates
Using peristaltic pump:
1. Pump air through the
microchannels
2. Take up approximately 0.25 ml
of liquid bonder in tubing
3. Switch back to air.
4. Add another plug of bonder if
the interstitial spaces are not
saturated.
5. Pump air through the
channels for 30 min.

A Proper Pump
Syringe Pump: $1,000 and up.
Laser-cut syringe pump:

Arduino
Motor Shield
Acrylic
Two Stepper Motors
Smooth & Threaded Rod

$25
$20
$5
$30
$10
$90

http://amzn.com/B00PNEQI7W

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1438

In-House Syringe Pumps

Doesnt Work

Student-Made

Professor-Made

How to Cut the Microreactor Channels?

The Test Reaction

Fuchsin | rosaniline hydrochloride | C20H19N3HCl
Important biological stain (Gram Stain, Schiff test).
Malachite Green

Crystal Violet

Typical Experimental Setup for Microscopy

MATLAB GUI
Microfluidic Pumps
Microreactor

Microscope

Microscope

Phone

Hard-Working
Student

Arduino Board
Motor Driver Shield

Calibration
After running the reaction, clean out the channels with DI water.
Fill the channels with various concentrations of Fuchsine.
Note, the channel will be slightly dyed from use.
Channel may stain over
repeated uses.
But can be bleached
back to original state.

0M

1e-4 M

5e-4M

Calibration
Normalize the background color of each image.
A brighter, more uniform light source will reduce the
error from this step.

Use image processing software to locate the

channels.
We used Matlab with manual and automated steps.

Determine the length of the channels and the

pixels colors down the length of the channel.
The green color values of the image are the most
important.

Calibration
The green color values were quite
constant (though noisy)
throughout the length of the
channel for each calibration
sample.
We simply took an average for
each sample for this first-pass
analysis.

Results
We ran our reactor at two different flow rates.
Using our stepper motors speed of 2 and 4.

Motor Speed: 2

Motor Speed: 4

Results
Using the calibration, we found the concentration of Fuchsine down
the channel.
Fit to a first-order rate equation, plus a time delay versus the position.
k = 0.023

1
mm

k = 0.0057

1
mm

Results
Using the volumetric flowrate and the time it takes a plug to travel
through the channel, we can determine the rate constant:

Batch

Motor Speed: 2

Motor Speed: 4

Volumetric
Flowrate Q

NA

0.0060 mL/s

0.011 mL/s

Rate Constant k

1.5 M-1 s-1

0.055 M-1 s-1

0.024 M-1 s-1

Conclusions: Microfluidics With Laser Cutters

Students can do this.
Working microfluidics channels in about 2 hrs.
Cheap
Minus laser cutter

Several tricks are needed first.

Microreactors.
Doable.
Can obtain useful data.

Many other options available.

Future?

Laser Cut Microfluidics Projects for

Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories
(525d)
Anthony Butterfield
Kyle Branch
Tarun Sunkaraneni
Joshua Ong

November 11, 2015

Embracing Maker Space for ChE