Microfluidic technology is widely used in biochemical analysis, disease diagnosis, environmental detection and other fields due to the advantages of high throughput, fast detection, less waste and integration. However, traditional microfluidic chips are limited by rigid materials and fixed channel aperture, relying on external pumps and valves to drive the fluids. Herein, we propose a new strategy to construct flexible channels by using photodeformable liquid crystal polymers. The fluids are driven by the Laplace pressure difference based on the asymmetric photodeformation of the flexible channels. The key to this strategy is to improve the processability of liquid crystal polymers. We developed a new type of linear liquid crystal polymers (LLCPs) by ring-opening metathesis polymerization. Due to the absence of chemical crosslinking networks, the LLCPs have excellent processability and can be used to construct 3D microtubular actuators with alterable channel geometry. The microtubular actuators occur asymmetric expansion under gradient light irradiation, and the resulting Laplace pressure difference drives the fluids to move toward the narrow end, achieving all-optically controlled and efficient transportation of various fluids. Furthermore, in order to design sophisticated channels and realize the fusion and separation of fluids, we construct all-optically controlled microfluidic chips with alterable channel size by using LLCPs to encapsulate traditional microfluidic substrates. Through the design of channels, the chips integrate transportation, fusion, separation and mixing of the fluids. Based on these functions, we further realize all-optically controlled biochemical analysis such as protein detection and polymerase chain reaction. The all-optical microfluidic chips have the advantages of low sample consumption, low energy consumption, short reaction time, portable system and easy detection, which have important application value and potential in clinical diagnosis, environmental detection and many other fields.

Novel microfluidic technology based on photodeformable linear liquid crystal polymers

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