Fully enclosed paper-based microfluidic devices using bio-compatible adhesive seals

A low-cost and simple method to enclose the microchannels for paper-based microfluidic devices using highly bio-compatible adhesive seals is proposed in this research. The polyester adhesive seals which originally used for the sealing of 96-Well PCR Plates was used for the sealing of paper-based microfluidic devices. The adhesive seals used to enclose the microchannels in this approach have the advantages of optically clear, strong adhesion to various surfaces without thermal/chemical treatment, free of biomass such as DNA, wide working temperature, highly bio-compatible and low-cost. For the demonstration of the proposed method, a paper-based microfluidic device for amino acids analysis was fabricated using wax printing and then fully enclosed the microchannels with adhesive seals. The bonding strength between adhesive seal and filter paper was also tested in the proposed microchannel enclosing method.