Investigation of chemical reactions in femtoliter-volume droplets

华盛顿大学的Daniel T. Chiu教授得到化学系分析和表面化学项目的支持，研究飞升体积液滴中的化学反应。不同浓度的表面活性剂、不混相油和内部溶质离子强度将被改变和测试，以确定它们对液滴的确切影响。获得的实验信息将用于合成一个模型，用于预测液滴受限化学反应，以及它们如何受到表面活性剂和不混相油的选择以及液滴内溶质的浓度和离子强度的影响。虽然液滴微流体开始在不同领域得到广泛应用，如生物分析、蛋白质结晶、DNA测序和化学合成，但液滴化学的基本原理，特别是高表面体积比环境如何影响化学，仍然相对未被探索。学生将接受界面化学、微流体学和尖端光学技术方面的培训，以操纵和分析液滴的内容。预测模型和相关软件将在PI实验室网站上提供。

Professor Daniel T. Chiu of the University of Washington is supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry to study chemical reactions in femtoliter-volume droplets. Surfactants with varying concentrations, immiscible oils, and interior solute ionic strength will be varied and tested to determine their exact effects on droplets. The experimental information obtained will be used to synthesize a model to allow prediction of droplet confined chemical reactions, and how they are affected by the choice of surfactant and immiscible oil as well as the concentration and ionic strength of the solutes contained within the droplet. While droplet microfluidics are beginning to find broad use in diverse areas, such as biological assays, protein crystallization, DNA sequencing, and chemical synthesis, the fundamentals of chemistry in droplets, in particular, how the high surface-to-volume ratio environment affects the chemistry, is still relatively unexplored. Students will be trained in interfacial chemistry as well as microfluidics and cutting-edge optical techniques for manipulating and analyzing the contents of droplets. The predictive model and associated software will be made available on the PI's laboratory website.