Facile Macrocyclic Polyphenol Barrier Coatings for PDMS Microfluidic Devices

Soft lithography techniques using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) are a cornerstone of microfluidic microdevices and emerging technologies such as microphysiological systems (MPS). Most of these systems employ hydrophobic small molecules during either stem cell differentiation, drug screening, or organoid development. However, due to PDMS's structure and hydrophobicity, lipophilic molecules are strongly absorbed creating unpredictable concentrations of mitogens, drugs, differentiation factors, and analytes, which is a major limitation in its use for biological applications. In this study, several catechol‐functionalized calix[4]arene based macrocyclic polyphenols (MPPs) are synthesized and coated on PDMS through a dip‐coating or flow through process. One molecule, MPP5cone, synthesized from catechol and resorcinol in its cone isomer form, increases the hydrophilicity of PDMS and drastically reduces the absorption of a number of hydrophobic drug surrogates, while preserving high oxygen permeability, good cell viability and function. However, simple rules of molecular absorption based on Log P are not observed, suggesting screening barrier coatings for PDMS with single probes is not sufficient. The coating procedure is easily translated to microfluidic devices by infusion through channels with a pump, and therefore should find use in applications where molecular absorption into PDMS is a significant problem. A versatile barrier coating constructed via the polymerization of a macrocyclic polyphenol precursor is presented, which efficaciously hinders the absorption of various small molecules into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) while preserving its cytocompatibility, high oxygen permeability, and transparency. This barrier coating can easily be applied to microfluidic devices, such as microphysiological systems, to minimize drug absorption into PDMS.