Two-Dimensional Antifouling Fluidic Channels on Nanopapers for Biosensing

Two-dimensional (hydrophilic) channels were patterned on films prepared from cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) using photolithography and inkjet printing. Such processes included UV-activated thiol-yne click coupling and inkjet-printed designs with polystyrene. The microfluidic channels were characterized (SEM, wetting, and fluid flow) and applied as platforms for biosensing. Compared to results from the click method, a better feature fidelity and flow properties were achieved with the simpler inkjet-printed channels. Human immunoglobulin G (hIgG) was used as target protein after surface modification with either bovine serum albumin (BSA), fibrinogen, or block copolymers of poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) and poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (POEGMA) (PDMAEMA-block-POEGMA copolymers). Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and AFM imaging were used to determine their antifouling effect to prevent nonspecific hIgG binding. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed diffusion and adsorption traces in the channels. The results confirm an effective surface passivation of the microfluidic channels (95% reduction of hIgG adsorption and binding). The inexpensive and disposable systems proposed here allow designs with space-resolved blocking efficiency that offer a great potential in biosensing.