A new, commercial hybrid ceramic polymer, Ormocomp, was introduced to the fabrication of microfluidic separation chips using two independent techniques, UV lithography and UV embossing. Both fabrication methods provided Ormocomp chips with stable cathodic electroosmotic flow which enabled examination of the Ormocomp biocompatibility by means of microchip capillary electrophoresis (MCE) and (intrinsic) fluorescence detection. The hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties of Ormocomp were examined by screening its interactions with bovine serum albumin and selected amino acids of varying hydrophobicity. The results show that the ceramic, organic−inorganic polymer structure natively resists biofouling on microchannel walls even so that the Ormocomp microchips can be used in intact protein analysis without prior surface modification. With theoretical separation plates approaching 104 m−1 for intact proteins and 106 m−1 for amino acids and peptides, our results suggest that Ormocomp microchips hold record-breaking performance as microfluidic separation platforms. In addition, Ormocomp was shown to be suitable for optical fluorescence detection even at near-UV range (ex 355 nm) with detection limits at a nanomolar level (∼200 nM) for selected inherently fluorescent pharmaceuticals.
一种新的商业混合陶瓷聚合物Ormocomp被引入用于微流体分离芯片的制造,采用了两种独立的技术:紫外光刻和紫外压印。这两种制造方法都为Ormocomp芯片提供了稳定的阴极电渗流,从而通过微芯片毛细管电泳(MCE)和(内在)荧光检测来检查Ormocomp的
生物相容性。通过筛选Ormocomp与
牛血清白蛋白和不同疏
水性
氨基酸的相互作用,研究了Ormocomp的疏
水/亲
水特性。结果表明,该陶瓷有机-无机聚合物结构在微通道壁上天然抵抗
生物污垢,因此Ormocomp微芯片可以用于完整蛋白质的分析,而无需先进行表面改性。对于完整蛋白质的理论分离板近似达到104 m−1,对于
氨基酸和肽则达到106 m−1,我们的结果表明Ormocomp微芯片作为微流体分离平台具有破纪录的性能。此外,Ormocomp在近紫外范围(激发波长355 nm)内也适用于光学荧光检测,对于选定的内在荧光药物,其检测限可达到纳摩尔级别(约200 nM)。