P1.9.5 UV-Curable Adhesive as the Low-Cost Material of Choice for Microfluidic Forensic Applications

There is a push towards disposable, polymer-based microfluidic devices for medical and forensic applications to reduce cost and cross contamination between different samples. Therefore, more and more polymer-based systems are developed and they replace the common systems made of silicon or glass. But one of the main challenges of systems made of polymers is the adsorption/absorption of molecules. For microfluidic-based chemical sensors, it is essential that the analyte is not adsorbed on the walls of the microfluidic channels before detection. Here we present a study of the adsorption of cocaine molecules by low-cost polymer microfluidic devices. We manufactured the systems by a simple and low-cost rapid-prototyping method using a UV-curable adhesive. Remarkable low adsorption values (up to 100% recovery rate) were found by liquid chromatography – mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) measurements for this potential polymer for forensic applications.