Senior Research Fellowship: OptiChrom: Novel & Optimized Micro-structured Columns for Liquid Chromatography - 1 st term

The proposed SRF project aims at developing a successor technology for the micro-pillar array column technology developed by the applicant in the past decade and now matured in a commercial product. Whereas the former is limited in its stationary phase choices (carrier= only porous silicon, stationary phase can only be added by manufacturer), the new goal is to develop miniaturized columns wherein any of the HPLC particle types from the current catalogue of commercial stationary phases (consisting of hundreds of different brands and subtypes) can be arranged in perfectly ordered flow path networks. To realize this, state-of-the-art micromachining techniques will be used to produce silicon microfluidic networks of trenches connecting a high-density array of micro-structured cavities wherein (depending on the design) one, two or a fixed multitude of particles can be orderly stacked. The key step in the production of these micro-cavity network columns (CNC) is the flawless filling of the micro-cavities. To realize this, we can make use of a number of novel particle assembly methods (including vacuum-driven assembly of electrostatically levitated microspheres, rubbing with patterned elastomeric surfaces) developed during the ERC Printpack project. Next to this, we will also continue working on the development of the tools needed to produce micro-structured ordered chromatography packings by 3D-printing.