Self-Enclosed Nanofiber-Reinforced PDMS Channels Using Ultrafast Laser Irradiation

We report on an innovative method to fabricate self-enclosed reinforced Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannels using femtosecond laser pulses of megahertz pulse frequency. It involves nanofibrous structure generation and site-specific curing of PDMS. The rapid curing is due to accumulated heating at repetitive irradiation and can be explained by a volume-constrained temperature rise. The proposed technique permits both reinforcement and rapid curing and is ideal for fabricating reinforced structures in microscale. No additives are used in fabricating the nanofiber-reinforced enclosed channels. Since our method does not require a mask, it is relatively cheaper and faster compared with other conventional lithography techniques.