Discrete Femtolitre Pipetting with 3D Printed Axisymmetrical Phaseguides

Journal Article (2023)
Author(s)

Maarten Blankespoor (Student TU Delft)

Tomas Manzaneque (TU Delft - Electronic Instrumentation)

Murali Krishna Ghatkesar (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)

Research Group
Micro and Nano Engineering
Copyright
© 2023 Maarten Blankespoor, T. Manzaneque Garcia, M.K. Ghatkesar
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202300942
More Info
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Publication Year
2023
Language
English
Copyright
© 2023 Maarten Blankespoor, T. Manzaneque Garcia, M.K. Ghatkesar
Research Group
Micro and Nano Engineering
Issue number
3
Volume number
8 (2024)
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Abstract

The capacity to precisely pipette femtoliter volumes of liquid enables many applications, for example, to functionalize a nanoscale surface and manipulate fluids inside a single-cell. A pressure-controlled pipetting method is the most preferred, since it enables the widest range of working liquids. However, precisely controlling femtoliter volumes by pressure is challenging. In this work, a new concept is proposed that makes use of axisymmetrical phaseguides inside a microfluidic channel to pipette liquid in discrete steps of known volume. An analytical model for the design of the femtopipettes is developed and verified experimentally. Femtopipettes are fabricated using a multi-scale 3D printing strategy integrating a digital light processing printed part and a two-photon-polymerization printed part. Three different variants are designed and fabricated with pipetting resolutions of 10 picoliters, 180 femtoliters and 50 femtoliters. As a demonstration, controlled amounts of a water-glycerol mixture were first aspirated and then dispensed into a mineral oil droplet.