Electrokinetic protein preconcentration using a simple glass/poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic chip

We discovered that a protein concentration device can be constructed using a simple one-layer fabrication process. Microfluidic half-channels are molded using standard procedures in PDMS; the PDMS layer is reversibly bonded to a glass base such as a microscope slide. The microfluidic channels are chevron-shaped, in mirror image orientation, with their apexes designed to pass within approximately 20 microm of each other, forming a thin-walled section between the channels. When an electric field is applied across this thin-walled section, negatively charged proteins are observed to concentrate on the anode side of it. About 10(3)-10(6)-fold protein concentration was achieved in 30 min. Subsequent separation of two different concentrated proteins is easily achieved by switching the direction of the electric field in the direction parallel to the thin-walled section. We hypothesize that a nanoscale channel forms between the PDMS and the glass due to the weak, reversible bonding method. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that, when the PDMS and glass are irreversibly bonded, this phenomenon is not observed until a very high E-field was applied and dielectric breakdown of the PDMS is observed. We therefore suspect that the ion exclusion-enrichment effect caused by electrical double layer overlapping induces cationic selectivity of this nanochannel. This simple on-chip protein preconcentration and separation device could be a useful component in practically any PDMS-on-glass microfluidic device used for protein assays.