Search results for "Microfluidics"
showing 10 items of 121 documents
Functional liquid crystalline particles and beyond
2019
ABSTRACTRecently the preparation and handling of liquid crystalline (LC) particles, which cover the size from some 100 nano-meters to micro- and millimetres found more interest. This review describ...
Preparation of cholesteric particles from cellulose derivatives in a microfluidic setup
2011
A microfluidic setup was used to process lyotropic cholesteric liquid crystalline mixtures of cellulose derivatives into spherical particles in the micrometre scale. By the method of co-flowing injection, monodisperse droplets of the liquid crystal, dispersed in an aqueous carrier fluid, were prepared. Polymerization of the acrylic solvent with UV-light fixed the orientation obtained by the flowing motion. The resulting particles were characterized by polarizing optical microscopy.
Anisotropic flow in striped superhydrophobic channels
2012
We report results of dissipative particle dynamics simulations and develop a semi-analytical theory of an anisotropic flow in a parallel-plate channel with two superhydrophobic striped walls. Our approach is valid for any local slip at the gas sectors and an arbitrary distance between the plates, ranging from a thick to a thin channel. It allows us to optimize area fractions, slip lengths, channel thickness and texture orientation to maximize a transverse flow. Our results may be useful for extracting effective slip tensors from global measurements, such as the permeability of a channel, in experiments or simulations, and may also find applications in passive microfluidic mixing.
Interfacial Self-Assembly of Amphiphilic Dual Temperature Responsive Actuating Janus Particles
2018
Lattice Boltzmann simulations in microfluidics: probing the no-slip boundary condition in hydrophobic, rough, and surface nanobubble laden microchann…
2009
In this contribution we review recent efforts on investigations of the effect of (apparent) boundary slip by utilizing lattice Boltzmann simulations. We demonstrate the applicability of the method to treat fundamental questions in microfluidics by investigating fluid flow in hydrophobic and rough microchannels as well as over surfaces covered by nano- or microscale gas bubbles.
Engineered Membranes for Residual Cell Trapping on Microfluidic Blood Plasma Separation Systems: A Comparison between Porous and Nanofibrous Membranes
2021
Blood-based clinical diagnostics require challenging limit-of-detection for low abundance, circulating molecules in plasma. Micro-scale blood plasma separation (BPS) has achieved remarkable results in terms of plasma yield or purity, but rarely achieving both at the same time. Here, we proposed the first use of electrospun polylactic-acid (PLA) membranes as filters to remove residual cell population from continuous hydrodynamic-BPS devices. The membranes hydrophilicity was improved by adopting a wet chemistry approach via surface aminolysis as demonstrated through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Water Contact Angle analysis. The usability of PLA-membranes was assessed through de…
Switchable surface structured hydrogel coatings
2017
Switchable surface structures based on hydrogels are an emerging field in material science, microfluidics, soft robotics and anti-fouling. Here, we describe a novel method that uses a photo-cross-linkable terpolymer to create a hydrogel coating with a switchable surface structure. The terpolymer is based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) and it is shown that simple coating technologies like slit die coating can be used under ambient conditions. It is also shown that the swelling ratio of the coating is controlled by the energy dose of ultraviolet (UV) light. Simple and complex surface structures were created using respectively single or multiple UV illumination steps through masks and…
Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with a microfluidic diamond quantum sensor
2019
Quantum sensors based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond have emerged as a promising detection modality for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy owing to their micron-scale detection volume and non-inductive based detection. A remaining challenge is to realize sufficiently high spectral resolution and concentration sensitivity for multidimensional NMR analysis of picoliter sample volumes. Here, we address this challenge by spatially separating the polarization and detection phases of the experiment in a microfluidic platform. We realize a spectral resolution of 0.65 +/- 0.05 Hz, an order-of-magnitude improvement over previous diamond NMR studies. We use the platform to perform …
Development of a three-dimensional cell culture system based on microfluidics for nuclear magnetic resonance and optical monitoring
2014
A new microfluidic cell culture device compatible with real-time nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is presented here. The intended application is the long-term monitoring of 3D cell cultures by several techniques. The system has been designed to fit inside commercially available NMR equipment to obtain maximum readout resolution when working with small samples. Moreover, the microfluidic device integrates a fibre-optic-based sensor to monitor parameters such as oxygen, pH, or temperature during NMR monitoring, and it also allows the use of optical microscopy techniques such as confocal fluorescence microscopy. This manuscript reports the initial trials culturing neurospheres inside the micro…
Microstructuring of phospholipid bilayers on gold surfaces by micromolding in capillaries
2005
Microstructuring of lipid bilayers on gold surfaces was achieved by micromolding in capillaries employing chemically modified polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Microfluidic networks of PDMS were prepared by micromolding and functionalized with thiol end-groups using 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane. The PDMS stamps were firmly attached to the gold substrate via quasi-covalent linkage providing a tight seal, a prerequisite for establishing individual addressable capillaries. Bilayers composed of POPC/POPG were subsequently prepared on microstructured self assembly monolayers of 11-amino-1-undecanethiol via strong electrostatic interactions. This way it is possible to generate individually address…