HYBRID CERAMIC-POLYMER MICROFLUIDIC CHIPS FOR BIOMOLECULE SEPARATIONS

A commercial hybrid material, ORMOCOMP ® , is introduced to the fabrication of separation microchips and applied to bioanalytical applications. With theoretical plates approaching 10 6 /m and detection limit of proteins at low picogram level (10 -12 g, by laser induced fluorescence), our results suggest that ORMOCOMP ® holds record-breaking performance in microchip electrophoresis with respect to both separation efficiency and detection sensitivity over other polymer-like materials.