Silicon-on-glass pore network micromodels with oxygen-sensing fluorophore films for chemical imaging and defined spatial structure.

Pore network microfluidic models were fabricated by a silicon-on-glass technique that provides the precision advantage of dry etched silicon while creating a structure that is transparent across all microfluidic channels and pores, and can be imaged from either side. A silicon layer is bonded to an underlying borosilicate glass substrate and thinned to the desired height of the microfluidic channels and pores. The silicon is then patterned and through-etched by deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), with the underlying glass serving as an etch stop. After bonding on a transparent glass cover plate, one obtains a micromodel in oxygen impermeable materials with water-wet surfaces where the microfluidic channels are transparent and structural elements such as the pillars creating the pore network are opaque. The advantageous features of this approach in a chemical imaging application are demonstrated by incorporating a Pt porphyrin fluorophore in a PDMS film serving as the oxygen-sensing layer and a bonding surface, or in a polystyrene film coated with a PDMS layer for bonding. The sensing of a dissolved oxygen gradient was demonstrated using fluorescence lifetime imaging, and it is shown that different matrix polymers lead to optimal use in different ranges of oxygen concentration. Imaging with the opaque pillars in between the observation direction and the continuous fluorophore film yields images that retain defined spatial structure in the sensor image.