REVIEW article
Front. Lab Chip Technol.
Sec. Environmental Sensors, Sustainability and Reaching Net-Zero
This article is part of the Research TopicTowards an Eco-Friendly Future for Microfluidics, Lab on a Chip and Point-of Care DevicesView all 4 articles
Bio-based materials: an alternative to synthetic polymers for the development of Lab-on-a-chip devices
Provisionally accepted
Morgane Zimmer1,2,3,4,5,6
Emmanuelle Laurenceau1,2,3,4,5,6*
Stéphane Trombotto1,2,3,7,8Cécile Jamois1,2,3,4,5,6
Anne-Laure Deman1,2,3,4,5,6*- 1Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France
- 2CNRS Delegation Rhone-Auvergne, Villeurbanne, France
- 3Institut National des Sciences Appliquees de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France
- 4Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Écully, France
- 5Ecole Superieure Chimie Physique Electronique de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France
- 6Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon, Écully, France
- 7Ingenierie des Materiaux Polymeres, Villeurbanne, France
- 8Universite Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, Saint-Étienne, France
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Lab-on-a-chip (LoC) devices have proved their potential for biomedical and analytical applications. Despite their growing demand, their environmental impacts remain insufficiently taken into account. These microfluidic devices are mainly made from petroleum-based materials like PDMS and thermoplastics, whose life-cycle (from resource extraction to disposal) poses ecological and health concerns. In response, a growing number of research papers are exploring bio-based alternatives, such as cellulose, PLA, chitosan, or zein. This review details properties of microfluidic devices made from these bio-based materials compared with more conventional materials, and particularly their impact on the environment from raw material sourcing through manufacturing to disposal. Although many of these materials are still in early stages of research, and published data is limited, developments are promising, and the associated technological challenges must be met. The alternative to plastics used for the manufacture of LoC could be a panel of complementary bio-based materials, locally sourced to support the local economy and limit transport, and which do not lead to new imbalances. This review advocates for a sustainable approach to material selection, encouraging the development of greener microfluidic devices.
Keywords: lab-on-a-chip, Bio-based materials, sustainability, Microfluidics, microfabrication
Received: 10 Sep 2025; Accepted: 21 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zimmer, Laurenceau, Trombotto, Jamois and Deman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Emmanuelle Laurenceau, emmanuelle.laurenceau@ec-lyon.fr
Anne-Laure Deman, anne-laure.deman-him@univ-lyon1.fr
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.