Parallel Microfluidic Synthesis of Conductive Biopolymers

Microfluidic devices with increasing complexity have been demonstrated for a broad range of applications from biological studies, combinatorial synthesis, to fully programmable DNA synthesis. We are using microfluidic devices to synthesize arrays of conductive polymers to select those materials with optimal neural cell attachment and growth support. We have developed a microfluidic based parallel synthesis reactor to automate the creation and evaluation of poly(Pyrrole) based biopolymers. A prototype that is capable of synthesizing and screening over 100 compositions on a chip has been tested. The system currently produces features of ~50 micrometers. Recent work has started to scale up the number of compositions using devices based on immiscible liquid plugs