High performance magnetically controllable microturbines

Reported in this paper is two-photon photopolymerization (TPP) fabrication of magnetic microturbines with high surface smoothness towards microfluids mixing. As the key component of the magnetic photoresist, Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles were carefully screened for homogeneous doping. In this work, oleic acid stabilized Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles synthesized via high-temperature induced organic phase decomposition of an iron precursor show evident advantages in particle morphology. After modification with propoxylated trimethylolpropane triacrylate (PO(3)-TMPTA, a kind of cross-linker), the magnetic nanoparticles were homogeneously doped in acrylate-based photoresist for TPP fabrication of microstructures. Finally, a magnetic microturbine was successfully fabricated as an active mixing device for remote control of microfluids blending. The development of high quality magnetic photoresists would lead to high performance magnetically controllable microdevices for lab-on-a-chip (LOC) applications.