Operando Measurements of Pressure-Based PDMS Deformations in Electrochemical Microfluidic Devices

Abstract

Polymer based microfluidics, using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), are highly adaptable platforms for electrochemical studies commonly used for numerous applications. Deformations of these PDMS devices due to the flow pressure drop in microchannels have been widely documented in literature but cannot be prevented in all applications even though it is critical to measure quantitative data. In this work, we show that in electrochemical microfluidic devices used in energy conversion systems, the velocity profiles and channel deformations can be quantitatively measured based on spectro-electrochemistry and numerical simulations of Hagen-Poiseuille flows. PDMS deformations are found amplified in the case of large channel aspect ratios (i.e. close to 100), with deformation $Δ$ h / h 0 > 100 % at 50 kPa, and start to be non-negligible > 10 % for channel internal pressure above 5 kPa. Finally, by considering these channel deformations in the Beer-Lambert law, we show that accurate absorbance and concentration measurements can be obtained using visible spectroscopy regardless the channel internal pressure.