Microfluidic microchannel

Polymers have come a long way from parkesine, celluloid and bakelite they have become functional as well as structural materials. Indeed, they have become both at the same time one novel use for polymers depends upon precision micro-embossing of polymers, with precise pressure and temperature control, for replicating electronic chips containing microchannels for capillary electrophoresis and for microfluidics devices or micro-optical components. 

FIGURE 11.32 Flow profiles in microchannels, (a) A pressure gradient, - AP, along a channel generates a parabolic or Poiseuille flow profile in the channel. The velocity of the flow varies across the entire cross-sectional area of the channel. On the right is an experimental measurement of the distortion of a volume of fluid in a Poiseuille flow. The frames show the state of the volume of fluid 0, 66, and 165 ms after the creation of a fluorescent molecule, (b) In electroosmotic flow in a channel, motion is induced by an applied electric field E. The flow speed only varies within the so-called Debye screening layer, of thickness D. On the right is an experimental measurement of the distortion of a volume of fluid in an electroosmotic flow. The frames show the state of the fluorescent volume of fluid 0, 66, and 165 ms after the creation of a fluorescent molecule [165], Source http //www.niherst.gov.tt/scipop/sci-bits/microfluidics.htm (see Plate 12 for color version). 

Yang J, Lu F, Kostiuk LW, Kwok DY. Electrokinetic microchannel battery by means of electrokinetic and microfluidic phenomena. J. Micromech. Microeng. 2003 13 963-970. 

SIP-driven polymer brush library fabrication leverages the fact that the polymerization initiation species are permanently bound to the substrate. Since the initiators are tethered, controlled delivery of monomer solution to different areas of the substrate results in a grafted polymer library. In NIST work, initiators bound via chlorosilane SAMs to silicon substrates were suitable for conducting controlled atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) [53] and traditional UV free radical polymerization [54, 55]. Suitable monomers are delivered in solution to the surface via microfluidic channels, which enables control over both the monomer solution composition and the time in which the solution is in contact with the initiating groups. After the polymerization is complete, the microchannel is removed from the substrate (or vice versa). This fabrication scheme, termed microchannel confined SIP ([t-SIP), is shown in Fig. 10. In these illustrations, and in the examples discussed below, the microchannels above the substrate are approximately 1 cm wide, 5 cm long, and 300-500 [tm high. 

S)-ibuprofen by means of ionic liquid flow within a microfluidic device. (B, Bottom) Photographs of the three-phase flow in the microchannel (a) center near the inlets of the microchannel, (b and c) arc of the microchannel, and (d) center near the outlets of the microchannel. Flow rates of the aqueous phase and the ionic liquid flow phase in (a-d) were 1.5 and 0.3 mL/h, respectively. (Reprinted from Huh, Y.S., Jun, Y.S., Hong, Y.K., Hong, W.H., and Kim, D.H., /. Mol. Catal. B, 43, 96-101, 2006. Copyright 2006 Elsevier. With permission.)... 

Microfluidics is about the flow of tiny amounts of liquids. The prefix micro indicates that at least in two dimensions, the liquid should be confined in micrometer dimensions. If we are, for instance, dealing with a channel, its width or diameter should be below 100 /tm to earn the title microchannel . Please note that a microliter is a relatively large volume in microfluidics since it is equal to the volume of (1 mm)3. 

Although most photoresists are generally considered to be sacrificial materials, liquid-type negative photoresists, such as SU-8, can be used to create microchannels within microfluidic chips [20]. The photoresist then becomes a structural material, in such a way that its thickness determines the depth of the microchannel. A negative dry photoresist... 

The use of ELISA is broad and it finds applications in many biological laboratories over the last 30 years many tests have been developed and vahdated in different domains such as clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical research, industrial control or food and feed analytics for instance. Our work has been to redesign the standard ELISA test to fit in a microfluidic system with disposable electrochemical chips. Many applications are foreseen since the biochemical reagents are directly amenable from a conventional microtitre plate to our microfluidic system. For instance, in the last 5 years, we have reported previous works with this concept of microchannel ELISA for the detection of thromboembolic event marker (D-Dimer) [4], hormones (TSH) [18], or vitamin (folic acid) [24], It is expected that similar technical developments in the future may broaden the use of electroanalytical chemistry in the field of clinical tests as has been the case for glucose monitoring. This work also contributes to the novel analytical trend to reduce the volume and time consumption in analytical labs using lab-on-a-chip devices. Not only can an electrophoretic-driven system benefit from the miniaturisation but also affinity assays and in particularly immunoassays with electrochemical detection. 

Zhu et al. [76] designed and fabricated microfluidic devices on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) substrates for electrochemical analysis applications using an improved UY-LIGA process. The microchannel structures were transferred from a nickel mold onto the plastic plates by the hot embossing... 

The membrane technology has been tested in microfluidic devices. Normally a membrane is mounted between two chips, which make a microchannel, and fluid is allowed to pass through the membrane channel. Some papers are available on this method, which are discussed here. Hisamoto et al. [61] reviewed the application of capillary assembled microchips on PDMS as an online... 

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