Liquid droplet as efficient master in thin membrane fabrication of poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic devices

In this paper, liquid droplet master was for the first time used to fabricate thin membranes integrated polymeric microfluidic devices. As demonstration, water liquid droplet master was used to make a thin membrane in PDMS microfluidic devices which were prepared by using printed master. The PDMS membrane can be controlled down to approximately 10 μm thick with considerable vapour permeation which was adjusted by environmental humidity. An array of the microfluidic devices with thin PDMS membranes was also used for monitoring the crystallization of NaCl.