Development of glass-based microfluidic devices: A review on its fabrication and biologic applications

The advent of glass-based microfluidic devices further revolutionized in microfluidic technology due to the several advantageous properties in terms of photonics, electronics, and thermochemistry, compared to silicon, PDMS and paper. In this review article, we discuss the glass materials in comparison with inor-ganic, organic polymeric and paper materials for the fabrication of microfluidic devices and the suitabil-ity, benefits, applicability of their applications. We highlight the performance enhancement of glass achieved via hybrid fabrication with advanced polymers. For this comprehensive overview of the differ-ent materials for the fabrication and applications of microfluidic devices, we consider recent advances in the selected applications of glass material-based microfluidics in sensing and biomedical applications, such as Raman spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, optical detection methods, embedded glass microflu-idics for oil and gas, point-of-care diagnostics, cell analysis, nucleic acid assay, immunoassay analysis and drug delivery. Our review concludes by summarizing the future challenges and developments of these glass-based microfluidic devices.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The advent of glass-based microfluidic devices has revolutionized microfluidic technology due to their advantageous properties compared to other materials. This review discusses the suitability and benefits of glass materials for microfluidic device fabrication compared to inorganic, organic polymeric, and paper materials. The review also highlights the performance enhancement achieved by hybrid fabrication of glass with advanced polymers. Additionally, it considers recent advances in glass-based microfluidics in various sensing and biomedical applications and concludes by summarizing future challenges and developments.