Verdrucken von Nanocellulosefasern in konventionellen direkten Druckverfahren auf Karton und anschließendes Prägen von Kapillarstrukturen mit Hilfe von 3D-gedruckten Prägeformen

Overview & Synopsis

The present work is an investigation into the potential of fabricating a cardboardbased POCT with capillaries for transporting fluids using nanocellulose and additive manufactured embossing tools. The nanocellulose was provided by RISE from Sweden. Rheological studies showed that they can be described using a Bingham model and are subject to a yield point. and are subject to a yield point. The nanocellulose was applied to various types of cardboard using the conventional direct printing processes of flexographic, gravure and screen printing. Flexo and gravure printing proved unsuitable for producing homogeneous layers due to a Saffman-Taylor instability. Various investigations showed that screen printing using a screen with a very high wet ink film thickness produced the best results. The use of open capillaries in POCT requires the lowest possible contact angle. By applying nanocellulose, it was possible to reduce the contact angle of the cardboard to a suitable value and to change the penetration behavior in that the penetration of an applied liquid first takes place in the nanocellulose. Penetration into the cardboard itself was greatly delayed by the nanocellulose. The functionality of open capillaries could not be achieved in this work due to lack of manufacturing accuracy of additive manufacturing and limited cardboard selection. However, functional closed capillaries could be created using film lamination, allowing fluid transport by capillary forces over a distance of 25 mm without penetration into the cardboard. This shows that the production and use of cardboard-based POCT is theoretically possible.