Droplet mixer based on siphon-induced flow discretization and phase shifting
Burger, Robert, Reis, NunoORCID: 0000-0001-7500-8910, Fonseca, João and Ducrée, JensORCID: 0000-0002-0366-1897
(2009)
Droplet mixer based on siphon-induced flow discretization and phase shifting.
In: MEMS 2009 - 22nd IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 25-29 January 2009, Sorrento, Italy.
ISBN 978-1-4244-2978-3
We present a novel mixing principle for centrifugal microfluidic platforms. Siphon structures are designed to disrupt continuous flows in a controlled manner into a sequence of discrete droplets, displaying individual volumes as low as 60 nL. When discrete volumes of different liquids are alternately issued into a common reservoir, a striation pattern of alternating liquid layers is obtained. In this manner diffusion distances are drastically decreased and a fast and homogeneous mixing is achieved. Efficient mixing is demonstrated for a range of liquid combinations of varying fluid properties such as aqueous inks or saline solutions and human plasma. Volumes of 5 muL have been mixed in less than 20 s to a high mixing quality. One-step dilutions of plasma in a standard phosphate buffer solution up to 1:5 are also demonstrated.
Proceedings of the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems.
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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. ISBN 978-1-4244-2978-3