Fabrication and Optimization of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene Thin Films for Next-Generation Lab-on-Chip Devices

Developing efficient and cost-effective electrodes for microfluidic and lab on chip (LOC) applications demands materials with conductivity, flexibility, and optical properties, as traditional metal electrodes face limitations in cost and adaptability to advanced LOC systems. This work presents a comprehensive parametric study on the fabrication and application of patterned Ti₃C₂T_x MXene (TMX) thin films, focusing on optimizing deposition parameters across various substrates to achieve good electrical conductivity, strong adhesion, and mechanical flexibility with transparency, enabling high-performance thin films for advanced LOC applications. Aqueous TMX thin film is spin-coated on glass and cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) substrates and patterned using a plasma-enhanced lift-off technique to optimize deposition conditions, resulting in thin film electrodes with a sheet resistance of 280–320 Ω sq⁻¹ on COC substrate. The optimized patterned electrodes are then integrated into microfluidic systems to manipulate biological cells through dielectrophoresis. The experimental results demonstrate precise and effective cell manipulation under negative dielectrophoresis (nDEP), validating the potential of TMX-thin film electrodes as a robust and viable alternative to conventional metal electrodes. This work lays the foundation for developing cost-effective, flexible, and high-performance TMX thin-film electrodes tailored for different substrates, advancing their use in bioengineering and LOC applications.