Review on recent and advanced applications of monoliths and related porous polymer gels in micro-fluidic devices

This review critically summarises recent novel and advanced achievements in the application of monolithic materials and related porous polymer gels in micro-fluidic devices appearing within the literature over the period of the last 5 years (2005-2010). The range of monolithic materials has developed rapidly over the past decade, with a diverse and highly versatile class of materials now available, with each exhibiting distinct porosities, pore sizes, and a wide variety of surface functionalities. A major advantage of these materials is their ease of preparation in micro-fluidic channels by in situ polymerisation, leading to monolithic materials being increasingly utilised for a larger variety of purposes in micro-fluidic platforms. Applications of porous polymer monoliths, silica-based monoliths and related homogeneous porous polymer gels in the preparation of separation columns, ion-permeable membranes, preconcentrators, extractors, electrospray emitters, micro-valves, electrokinetic pumps, micro-reactors and micro-mixers in micro-fluidic devices are discussed herein. Procedures used in the preparation of monolithic materials in micro-channels, as well as some practical aspects of the micro-fluidic chip fabrication are addressed. Recent analytical/bioanalytical and catalytic applications of the final micro-fluidic devices incorporating monolithic materials are also reviewed.     

Preparation and characterization of crosslinked chitosan-based nanofibers

Crosslinked chitosan-based nanofibers were successfully prepared via electrospinning technique with heat mediated chemical crosslinking followed.The structure,morphology and mechanical property of nanofibers were characterized by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(ATR-FTIR),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),Instron machine,respec- tively.The results showed that,nanofibers exhibited a smooth surface and regular morphology,and tensile strength of nanofibers improved with increasing of triethylene glycol dimethacrylate(TEGDMA)content.