Microfluidic flow in printed fracture channel

在该项目的最后阶段，即2021年结束时，我开始与一个遗传学研究小组合作，帮助开发用于微流体的有组织的微纤颤过程。在此之前，我很难将水基溶液带入多孔OM聚合物薄膜。常用的添加剂和表面活性剂也取得了很小的成功。通过这一新的合作，我们成功地确定了一些化学物质，使我的OM渠道中的水基解决方案得以流动。有了这一突破，我们能够通过OM薄膜实现其他里程碑。相关的生物物质，如蛋白质和糖，可以进入通道，并可通过荧光显微镜进行跟踪。最终，我们实现了不同分子量生物材料的分离，包括蛋白质和糖的分离，以及胰岛素和惰性SARS-COV2衣壳的分离。分离是通过制造具有不同孔隙度的OM通道来实现的，从而使更大的分子被孔所阻挡。这些成果已经包括在一篇提交给《自然通讯》的论文中。与这些合作者一起，我还研究了如何在没有毛细作用的情况下通过OM膜移动液体。用于微流体的OM的一个缺点是缺乏泵送能力。在这段时间里，我试着把电泳法应用到OM胶片上。我和我的合作者探索了不同的实验设置和条件，并能够实现电泳流的初步实验。

In the final stages of the project, ending 2021, I began a collaboration with a Genetics research group to help develop the Organized Microfibrillation process for microfluidics. Up until this point I had difficulty getting water based solutions into the porous OM polymer films. Minor success was achieved with common additives and surfactants. With this new collaboration we were successfully able to identify some chemicals that enabled the flow of water based solutions in my OM channels. With this breakthrough, we were able to achieve other milestones with the OM films. Relevant biological materials, such as proteins and saccharides could enter the channels and could be tracked by fluorescent microscope. Finally we were able to achieve separation of biological materials with differing molecular weights, including separation of proteins and saccharaides, and separation of insulin and inert SARS-COV2 capsid. Separation was achieved by making OM channels with differing porosity such that larger molecules were blocked by the pores. These achievements have been included in a paper that was submitted to Nature Communications.With the same collaborators I also worked on how to move liquids through OM films without capillary action. A weakness of OM for microfluidics is the lack of pumping capability. During this time I tried applying electrophoresis to my OM films. I and my collaborators explored different experimental setups and conditions and were able to achieve electrophoretic flow preliminary experiments.