Formation of self-rolled polymer microtubes studied by combinatorial approach

This paper describes an experimental study of the polymer microtube formation in different fabrication conditions. A photolithography route is demonstrated for the fabrication of large amount of uniform and good quality polymer microtubes. TEM grids were used as mask and exposure of UV radiation was done in two steps to create asymmetric patterns. The diameter of tube was controlled by regulating the thickness of polymer layers, UV radiation dose and concentration of acidic solution. The results indicate that thickness of the bilayer film was the most dominating factor to determine the tube's dimension, and diameter of the tubes increased with increase in the thickness of bilayer. The kinetics of the tube formation was studied with respect to acidity of the Solution and UV dose. Rate of rolling increased with the acidity of the Solution, Tube diameter and rate of rolling decreased with the increase of the UV exposure time. Films with two-dimensional gradients of layer thicknesses were prepared to study a broad range of parameters in a single experiment. The tubes were characterized in detail using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. These polymer microtubes have potential applications in microfluidic devices and biotechnology field. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.