51e Colloque National du Groupe Français d’études et d’applications des Polymères

20-24 Novembre 2023 – Bordeaux

Assessment of electrical conductivity of polymers

in microfluidic devices
S. Hidalgo-Caballeroa, M. Laboussea, J. D. McGraw a*
a
Gulliver UMR 7083 CNRS, PSL Research University,
ESPCI Paris, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris
* joshua.mcgraw@cnrs.fr

Key words: conductive polymers, conductivity measurement, carbon nanotubes, low-cost meter

Abstract: We present a simple method for measuring the electrical conductivity of polymers injected
into microfluidic devices. By using the Ohm’s law in the alternating current (AC) regime, a simple
resistor-capacitor (RC) electrical circuit is implemented, the electrical conductivity of nanoliter liquid
volumes is easily assessed. We compare the performance of our microfluidic device with a commercial
one used for milliliter volumes of liquids. An error of the order of 1% is found, showing the reliability of
our technique. Then, we employ this method to measure the conductivity of carbon nanotube
suspensions in low-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA-700). The estimated
values are consistent with the ones reported in the literature [1-3] after complete dispersal. Finally, and
after a first demonstration of this technique using a function generator and oscilloscope to measure the
conductivity of buffer solutions, we build a simple, low-cost device based on a microcontroller Arduino
and a self-generated AC signal coupled to an analog reading. This method can be integrated in the lab-
on-a-chip systems for direct, real-time evaluation of conductivity in microfluidics.

References :
[1] : VALENTINO, Olga, SARNO, Maria, RAINONE, Nicola G., et al. Influence of the polymer structure and
nanotube concentration on the conductivity and rheological properties of polyethylene/CNT composites. Physica
E: Low-dimensional systems and nanostructures, 2008, vol. 40, no 7, p. 2440-2445.

[2] : DENNEULIN, Aurore, BRAS, Julien, BLAYO, Anne, et al. The influence of carbon nanotubes in inkjet printing
of conductive polymer suspensions. Nanotechnology, 2009, vol. 20, no 38, p. 385701.

[3] : SADIQ, Mohd, KHAN, M. Ajmal, HASAN RAZA, Mohammad Moeen, et al. Enhancement of electrochemical
stability window and electrical properties of CNT-Based PVA–PEG polymer blend composites. ACS omega, 2022,
vol. 7, no 44, p. 40116-40131.