Fabrication of PMMA CE microchips by infrared-assisted polymerization

In this report, a method based on the infrared-assisted polymerization of methyl methacrylate has been developed for the rapid fabrication of PMMA CE microchips. Methyl methacrylate containing AIBN was allowed to prepolymerize in a water bath to form a fast-curing molding solution that was subsequently sandwiched between a silicon template and a piece of 1 mm-thick PMMA plate. The images of microchannels on the silicon template were precisely replicated into the synthesized PMMA substrates during the infrared-assisted polymerization of the molding solution. The polymerization could be completed within 50 min at 50 degrees C. The obtained channel plate was subsequently bonded to a piece of PMMA cover sheet to form a microchip with the aid of heat and pressure. The new fabrication approach obviates the need for special equipment and significantly simplifies the process of fabricating PMMA microchips. The attractive performance of the obtained PMMA microchips has been demonstrated in connection with contactless conductivity detection for the separation and detection of ionic species.