Thermal Wax Transfer Diffusion for Fluid Manipulation in Porous Filter Paper

In this study, we present a novel method for efficiently transferring wax patterns, initially printed on a regular A4 copy paper, onto a filter paper for fluid manipulation and point of care diagnostics. Our technique involves multi-step process combining wetting, contact printing, and heat pressing to effectively transfer the wax from the donor A4 paper onto recipient filter paper for programmable fluidic assay. We conducted optimization studies focusing on parameters such as temperature, duration, and wettability to enhance the efficiency of the wax transfer. We successfully transferred wax pattern shapes onto the filter paper, which hold promise for applications in both 2D and 3D cell culture systems as well as analyte sensing platforms and point of care diagnostics. The versatility of our developed technique opens avenues for a range of applications, including our ongoing efforts in paper-based 3D tumor growth and cryonreservation,