abstract
- © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is the benchmark for the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Fluidic chips can be produced by several methods, including soft lithography, peel and print, and stamping. Modified PDMS precursors and other polymer chemistries have been explored therefor. However, in many cases the use of PDMS may be adopted, by default, without necessarily questioning if it is the most ideal material for the intended outcome. Here, the focus is to generate critical awareness around the uniqueness and limitations of the PDMS chemistry as it relates to its use in the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Materials based on PDMS are compared and contrasted with the relatively few alternatives for which data was found related to their use in microfluidics as potential PDMS substitutes. We evaluate where we are in terms of designing next-generation materials for microfluidic applications. Additionally, we intend this article to aid the microfluidics researcher by highlight the most important structure/property relationships that can serve as guidelines in materials selection for microfluidics.