Polymer-based Valves with Tunable Opening Pressures for Biomedical Applications

摘要

A series of polymer-based Polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) ball valves with different opening pressures have beendeveloped for biomedical applications. By tuning different weight ratios of the two components (the base and thecuring agent) of PDMS, the valves will have different opening pressures because of different stiffness of the PDMSmaterials. The curing conditions and mechanical properties of the PDMS material with different ratios have beenthoroughly studied. The compressive Young’s modulus of the material can be tuned from 310 KPa to 2.0 MPa. Suchkind valves can be fabricated by injection molding, one of the cheapest fabrication techniques. Also such kind valvehas no dead volume and easily to be integrated into micro-total analysis systems (μTAS).