Rapid prototyping for micro-engineering and microfluidic applications: Recycled pmma, a sustainable substrate material

Poly(methylmethacrylate), PMMA, is one of the most commonly used thermoplastics for the manufacture of micromechanical and microfluidic devices, due to its optical transparency, rigid mechanical properties, low cost and good workability in conjunction with its rapid prototyping and mass manufacturing. Recent advances in the rapid-prototyping fields have allowed the production of precise features compatible with microfluidic structures and accelerated the conversion process from bench-side to mass market. For example, to address the need for fast design cycles using material compatible with mass manufacturing, we have developed an ultrafast prototyping technique for the manufacture of multilayer PMMA micro devices (doi:10.1007/s10404-016-1823-1) and described a method to choose the right PMMA for this prototyping technique (doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-792-4-181). PMMA is a petrochemical-derived material and the rising demand for single-use disposable devices will inevitably result into increased medical plastic waste. To address this problem at the design/prototyping stage, we explored the possibility of utilizing recycled PMMA (Re-PMMA) as the substrate material in our technique. The aim of this work is to compare commercially available recycled PMMA (Re-PMMA) with pristine PMMA (pPMMA) in conjunction with our prototyping technique. The information reported here will provide a practical guide to researchers when selecting Re-PMMA material for a more sustainable approach to micro-engineering and microfluidic rapid-prototyping.