Fabrication of metallic glass micro grooves by thermoplastic forming

Metallic glasses (MGs) are considered as ideal materials for miniature fabrication because of their excellent thermoplastic forming ability in the supercooled liquid region. We show that Pd-based MG micro grooves, which are essential for microdluidic devices, can be prepared by a highly efficient and precise fabrication method. The scanning electron microscope observation and surface profiler measurement show that the MG micro grooves have superior dimensional accuracy. The excellent corrosion resistance of MGs compared with silicon, which is the conventional microfluidic device material, is also proved by the weight-loss corrosion method. Our results indicate that MG can be a promising candidate material for the fabrication of microfluidic devices and may have broad applications in the biomedical areas. (paper)