Hydrophilic and anti-fouling nanochannel fabrication using poly(ethylene glycol)-mediated bonding

Abstract

We present a method to fabricate polymer nanochannel using novel poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-mediated bonding method. The proposed method enables rapid prototyping of hydrophilic and anti-fouling nanochannel by nanoimprint lithography (NIL) without using a sophisticated procedures and equipment. PEG chain was employed as an intermediate layer between nanoimprinted polymer substrate and glass cover plate for substrates bonding. In order to form PEG intermediate layer, methoxy PEG (mPEG)-epoxide was covalently coupled with hydroxyl group on the polymer substrate generated by oxygen plasma treatment. Then, both PEG-coated polymer substrate and glass cover plate were exposed to oxygen plasma again. The fabricated rectangular nanochannel consists of three PEG-coated polymer walls and a glass wall. The resultant PEG-coated nanochannel exhibited a long-lived hydrophilic surface and excellent anti-fouling effect for DNA molecules. In addition, nanochannel was completely leak-free to small molecules such as FITC. To evaluate the potential use of PEG-coated nanochannel in DNA analysis, relationship between various nanocomfinements and linear conformations of λ-DNA was investigated.