Home › Cell Biology › Drawing and Hydrophobicity-patterning Long Polydimethylsiloxane Silicone Filaments
Cell Biology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Drawing and Hydrophobicity-patterning Long Polydimethylsiloxane Silicone Filaments

DOI: 10.3791/58826-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Produce long PDMS filaments via gravity-drawing through a heated furnace
  • ✓ Apply Arduino-controlled corona discharge for hydrophobic patterning
  • ✓ Characterize surface properties of patterned silicone filaments
Protocol

Here, we present a protocol to produce long filaments of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) silicone by gravity-drawing through a furnace. Filaments are on the order of hundreds of micrometers in diameter and tens of centimeters in length and are hydrophobically patternable via an Arduino-controlled corona discharge system.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~4–6 hours per batch (extrusion + patterning + characterization)

Steps

1
Extrude PDMS filaments through heated furnace

Load polydimethylsiloxane precursor and gravity-draw filaments through a temperature-controlled furnace to produce uniform microfilaments hundreds of micrometers in diameter and tens of centimeters in length.

▶ 00:54
2
Apply Arduino-controlled corona discharge patterning

Use an automated corona discharge system controlled via Arduino to selectively modify the surface hydrophobicity of PDMS filaments according to programmed spatial patterns.

▶ 04:34
3
Characterize hydrophobic patterning results

Analyze and visualize the resulting hydrophobically-patterned PDMS filaments to confirm surface modification and pattern fidelity.

▶ 06:12
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