Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 21406–21412 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICSEM 2016

Preparation and Study of PDMS Material

Yadhuraj S Ra, Satheesh Babu Gandlab, Sudarshan B.Ga, Prasanna Kumar S.Ca
a
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation, RVCE, Bengaluru-560059, India
b
Department of Interdisciplinary Research Center, RVCE, Bengaluru-560059, India

Abstract

PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) has provided number of advantages in recent years has its applications in drug delivery system,
dry electrodes and other microfluidic applications. PDMS has also gained its importance as it is easy to prepare and also
biocompatible. In this work the PDMS is made to PDMS solid by processing the powder and the material is characterized using
SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and Raman Analysis. The characterizations were tested to prove the biocompatibility of
the PDMS by carrying the tests in normal sample and sterilized sample. The conductivity of the material was studied for different
proportion of binding agent used. Simulations were carried in COMSOL Multiphysics to study the relation between volume flow
rate, velocity magnitude and pressure drop in the PDMS micro channel. The simulation results showed the linear relations
between the studied variables. The results of the characterization showed the prepared PDMS was in optimum condition and can
be used for biomedical applications. The PDMS hydrophilic nature was reduced after preparing the PDMS solid so that it can be
coated with metals for electrode and micro channel applications.

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SMART ENGINEERING
MATERIALS (ICSEM 2016).

Keywords: PDMS; XRD; FTIR; SEM; COMSOL

1. Introduction

The study of fluidics for applications like drug delivery, sample handling and cell analysis at the micro scale is
called microfluidic. It is a vital part in devices like “lab on chip” portable device. The fluid flow of Nano liter,
microliter and Pico liter volume can be handled by micro channels [1].This device has a huge potential to diagnose
the state of the patient with very little reagent and sample. Polymers are generally used to fabricate microfluidic
devices, among that Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is simple to prepare, biocompatible, transparent and inexpensive

2214-7853 © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SMART ENGINEERING
MATERIALS (ICSEM 2016).
 Yadhuraj S.R et al.,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 21406–21412 21407

means for fabricating microfluidic device. Since PDMS is biocompatible it doesn’t cause cell toxicities. PDMS is
gases permeable and water impermeable [3]. Because of gas permeability within the material it will be feasible for
the study of living cells. Any optical detection methods works for PDMS as it has the optical transparency below
230nm wavelength. Other major advantage of PDMS micro-channel is it can be easily fabricated using technique of
replica molding. Since many of the sample analysis techniques required disposable devices, replica molding enables
to fabricate simple and economical disposable micro channel. PDMS materials also have fine reversible bonding for
various surfaces like glass, silicon and polymer. Plasma cleaner and techniques like corona discharge can be used for
realizing reversible bonding. This work focuses on study of PDMS material with Raman spectrum, XRD(X-ray
Diffractions) studies and FTIR(Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) studies and to modeling the micro channel
using COMSOL using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and to analyze the pressure drop developed and flow
characteristics. The field inside the channel the magnitude of the velocity for various range of flow rate is analysed.
By analyzing the simulated pressure developed we can also determine the optimum flow limit. The quantitation and
identification of the materials can be obtained through Raman spectroscopy. A monochromatic light is shined on the
sample, usually from the laser source and to detect the scattered light. Through the principle of elastic or Rayleigh
scattering the samples are detected. The XRD analysis is used to obtain the phase of the crystalline material and to
obtain information on unit cell. The absorption or emission of the material is obtained by FTIR spectroscopy. FTIR
also records high resolution spectral data over wide range of wavelengths.

1.1 Theoretical

Navier-Stokes equation gives the clear idea of fluid flow

ρ( +V. V)= ρg- μ V (1)
where, ρ denotes density of the fluid, μ is the dynamic fluid viscosity, g denotes the gravitational acceleration, t
denotes time, and V denotes the fluid velocity vector. The Navier-Stokes Equation can be further simplified for
x-direction flow assuming steady, Newtonian fluid flow and incompressible and in the absence of other forces

= (2)

2. Modeling And Simulation

In this study microchannel is defined with single inlet and single outlet. A square-shaped chamber is designed
of 10mm x 10.5mm as domain for holding biosamples continuously flowing in a microchannel.The FEA model
geometry used as shown in Fig. 1. Water at 250 Celsius with density, ρ of 997.13 kg/m3 and dynamic viscosity,
μ of 8.91 x 10-3 Pa.s is used for preliminary study. The single phase laminar fluid flow and the stationary
studies are carried out to solve this problem. The pressure drop along the inlet and outlet decides the flow in the
channel.

Fig. 1. FEA model geometry with boundary conditions used

21408 Yadhuraj S.R et al.,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 21406–21412

The unstructured triangular mesh is used to study the physics of the model, as mesh element. In this FEA
meshing consisted of 578468 elements and degree of freedom around 866,557 is solved. The FEA model
geometry is as shown in Fig.1. Five minutes is consumed for computational purpose and the computer memory
used was 3.5 Gigabytes. The FEA computed the fluid’s velocity components V = (u, v, w) in the x, y and z
directions and its pressure p in the region defined by the geometry and boundary conditions. To validate the
simulation results, a comparison between the Hagen-Poiseuille theoretical equation and simulation result is
performed as given in Table 1.

TABLE I. Validation Of Theoretical And Simulation Results Of A Straight Microchannel of 22,000 mm X 100
mm X 67 mm

Theoretical Simulation Error

Velocity magnitude 781.0um/s 817.707 4.7%
Pressure drop 33.5mPa 34.6055 3.3%

3. Preparation of PDMS Material

The PDMS and curing agent is purchased from shoney scientific, The PDMS is weighed and curator is added
roughly with the ratio of 10:1. In our work we have used 20.0624gm of PDMS and 2gm of curator. Mix thoroughly
the PDMS and the curator. Pour the mixture on to the required mold. Put the mixture in desiccator for about 15min
to remove the air bubbles as shown in Fig.2. Heat the mixture on hot plate for 30 minutes, with temperature of about
65oC. Peel of the mixture from the mold. Remove the remaining derbies by using scotch tape.

Fig.2 PDMS kept in vacuum to eliminate air bubbles

Fig.3 Prepared PDMS Solid.

 Yadhuraj S.R et al.,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 21406–21412 21409

Treat the prepared PDMS with plasma cleaner for around 5minutes. Plasma cleaner is used to convert the
material from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. Bond the obtained PDMS with any substrate used oven treatment. The
micro channeled PDMS is bonded with glass slide as shown in Fig.3.

4. Results

In this study a PDMS solid material is made using PDMS and curing agent. Characterizations were carried on with
Raman spectroscopy and SEM analysis before and after sterilization. The simulation is carried on to obtain the
relation between the volume flow rate, velocity magnitude and pressure drop in PDMS microchannel.

4.1 Simulation Results

In this study, simulation of water flows in a microbchannel with trapping chamber is discussed. The graph of
maximum velocity magnitude and pressure drop at 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, 10, 25, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 μL/min is shown
in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Graph of maximum velocity magnitude and pressure drop at 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, 10, 25, 50, 100, 500 and 1000
μL/min

The velocity magnitude varies linearly with the inlet laminar volume flow rate. The minimum and maximum
velocity magnitude of 5.392 x 10-4 m/s and 1.049 m/s is obtained at flow rate of 0.5 and 1000 μL/min
respectively. The zero value of velocity magnitude at the micro channel walls confirmed the wall no-slip
condition. The streamlines indicated the flow is in laminar regime where the Reynolds number is less than 2300
in a continuous liquid flow.
4.2 Pressure Drop

The graph of pressure drop across the micro channel at different volume flow rate is analysed. The minimum
and maximum pressure drop of 7.17 Pa and 14.81 kPa have been observed at volume flow rate of 0.5 and 1000
μL/min respectively. The pressure drop value across the micro channel conveys important information on the
safe limit of the PDMS micro channel bonding. PDMS to PDMS surface treated with corona discharge has
bonding strength of 60 kPa in liquid flow [6]. As in this work, the bonding strength of PDMS-PDMS surface
treated with corona discharge is able to withstand maximum flow rate of 1000 μL/min.
21410 Yadhuraj S.R et al.,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 21406–21412

4.3 PDMS Characterization Results

4.3.1 Raman Analysis

The fabricated PDMS is studied with Raman spectroscopy, in two different condition one with normal sample and
the other using sterilization normally carried for biomedical devices. Sterilization is carried using Ethanol (ETH)-----
samples were immersed in 70% ethanol.The sample is kept immersed for 30 min and dried in air at room
temperature. The surface scan image of PDMS material is as shown in Fig.5. The Raman spectrum without
sterilization is as shown in Fig.6, and PDMS fabricated shows the peak at 2958cm-1. After sterilization there was
very little change in the Raman spectrum depicting the bio compatibility of the material.

Fig.5 Surface scan image of PDMS

Fig.6 Raman spectrum for PDMS material before sterilization

 Yadhuraj S.R et al.,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 21406–21412 21411

Raman Peaks were found at 2950cm-1 before sterilization and at 2905cm-1 after sterilization as shown in Fig.6 and
Fig.7 respectively. Hence, there was no significant change in the spectrum. The result proves the chemical inertness
and biocompatibility of the PDMS material. The peak of Raman spectrum shows the presence of -CH2 and -CH3
bonds.

Fig.7. Raman spectrum for PDMS material after sterilization.

4.3.2 Conductivity

The conductivity of the material is studied for different ratio of PDMS and curing agent. For the study the ratio of
PDMS and curing agent were varied with 6 different ratios. The results obtained are as tabulated in Table II.

TABLE II. Comparison of Resistivity for different ratios of PDMS and Curing Agent

Sample Ratio Resistivity(Ω/cm)

1 10:1 2.83E+14
2 10:2 2.87E+14
3 10:3 2.93E+14
4 10:4 3.98E+14
5 10:5 5.67E+14
6 10:6 6.7E+14

The result showed that the conductivity decreases with more curing agent.

4.3.3 SEM Study

SEM analysis was carried to analyse the surface distortion or pattern degradation. SEM analysis was carried on with
two conditions, with and without sterilization. The result revealed that there was no change in the dimensions of the
sample after the sterilization.
21412 Yadhuraj S.R et al.,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 21406–21412

Conclusion

The PDMS solid has been prepared and it has been studied for biocompatibility using Raman spectroscopy and SEM
analysis.There was no significant change in the material properties before and after sterilization normally used for
biomedical devices. The simulation results revealed a linear relationship of velocity magnitude and pressure drop
with volumetric flow rate in the range of 0.5 to 1000 μL/min. Furthermore, the velocity streamlines indicated a
laminar fluid characteristic is maintained in the micro channel flow at maximum volumetric flow rate of 1000
μL/min. Pressure drop is a vital parameter in a micro channel design due to the bonding limit between the PDMS
micro channel and its substrate. In this work, a maximum pressure drop of 14.8 kPa is developed at maximum
volumetric flow rate of 1000 μL/min.

References

[1] L. Y. Yeo, H.-C. Chang, P. P. Y. Chan, and J. R. Friend, “Microfluidic devices for bioapplications.,” Small, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 12–48, Jan. 2011.
[2] G. M. Whitesides, “The origins and the future of microfluidics.,” Nature, vol. 442, no. 7101, pp. 368–73, Jul. 2006. I.S. Jacobs and C.P. Bean,
“Fine particles, thin films and exchange anisotropy,” in Magnetism, vol. III, G.T. Rado and H. Suhl, Eds. New York: Academic, 1963, pp.
271-350.
[3] S. K. Sia and G. M. Whitesides, “Microfluidic devices fabricated in poly(dimethylsiloxane) for biological studies.,” Electrophoresis, vol. 24,
no. 21, pp. 3563–76, Nov. 2003.
[4] I. Papautsky and A. B. Frazier, “A Review of Laminar Single-Phase Flow in Microchannels,” pp. 1–9, 2001.
[5] Microchem Technical Datasheet, “SU-8 2000 Permanent Epoxy Negative Photoresist Processing Guidelines for SU8-2025, SU8-2035, SU8-
2050, and SU8-2075,” www.microchem.com.
[6] K.-S. Koh, J. Chin, J. Chia, and C.-L. Chiang, “Quantitative Studies on PDMS-PDMS Interface Bonding with Piranha Solution and its S