Membrane-based fluorinated microfluidic device for water-oil separation

The integration of membranes in microfluidic devices is a topic of growing interest in various fields, most commonly particle filtrations and water-oil separations. Yet, choosing the suitable material and properties of the membrane is of major importance as it influences the performance and determines the application of integrated microfluidic device. Polymeric porous membranes with special wetting properties, such as superhydrophobicity/superoleophilicity and superhydrophilicity/superoleophobicity are of high interest due to ability to efficiently separate water and oil by absorbing one of the liquids and repelling the other one. We have previously introduced Fluoropor, a superhydrophobic fluorinated polymer foam that ca be prepared in a simple one-step process. Fluoropor possesses an inherent nano‐/microstructure throughout the whole bulk material making its superhydrophobic properties insensitive to abrasion. Within this work, we report a facile fabrication of a membrane-based microfluidic device that can be used for the separation of water-oil mixtures. The separation chip and the membrane are 3D printed from perfluoropolyethers methacrylate (PFPE-MA) resin and Fluoropor. Due to its hydrophobicity and porous nature, the Fluoropor membrane can efficiently be used for the separation of water-oil mixtures by selectively absorbing the oil. This way effective separation of a water-chloroform mixture was achieved.