Control and measurement of the phase behavior of aqueous solutions using microfluidics
Control and measurement of the phase behavior of aqueous solutions using microfluidics
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DOI：
10.1021/ja071820f
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发表时间：
2007-07-18
影响因子：
15
通讯作者：
Fraden, Seth
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shim, Jung-uk;Cristobal, Galder;Fraden, Seth
设计了一种用于测量和处理多组分流体混合物相图的微流控装置--相位芯片。相位芯片利用水通过聚（二甲基硅氧烷）（PDMS）的渗透，以便可控地改变储存在威尔斯孔中的水性纳升体积微滴中的溶质浓度。采用扩散方程模拟了水在相位芯片中的渗透过程，实验结果与理论计算结果吻合较好。相位芯片通过首先产生水/溶质混合物的液滴来操作，所述液滴的组成按顺序变化。接下来，液滴沿通道向下输送，并利用表面张力被引导到存储威尔斯井中。最后，同时改变和测量每个存储液滴的溶质浓度。介绍了相位芯片的两种应用。首先，在芯片上测量聚合物/盐混合物的相图并在芯片外验证，其次，通过操纵成核和生长的动力学来提高蛋白质结晶速率。
A microfluidic device denoted the Phase Chip has been designed to measure and manipulate the phase diagram of multicomponent fluid mixtures. The Phase Chip exploits the permeation of water through poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) in order to controllably vary the concentration of solutes in aqueous nanoliter volume microdrops stored in wells. The permeation of water in the Phase Chip is modeled using the diffusion equation, and good agreement between experiment and theory is obtained. The Phase Chip operates by first creating drops of the water/solute mixture whose composition varies sequentially. Next, drops are transported down channels and guided into storage wells using surface tension forces. Finally, the solute concentration of each stored drop is simultaneously varied and measured. Two applications of the Phase Chip are presented. First, the phase diagram of a polymer/salt mixture is measured on-chip and validated off-chip, and second, protein crystallization rates are enhanced through the manipulation of the kinetics of nucleation and growth.