Flow control in textile-based capillary-driven microfluidic platforms

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Access to reliable and timely diagnostic and environmental testing is crucial to ensure the health of people and the environment. Paper-based microfluidic tests enable users to perform their own testing instead of relying on trained personnel in labs, which vastly increases access to reliable testing. My group has developed paper-based arsenic tests for water testing in Bangladesh, and fabricated miniaturized features in paper-based platforms for allergy testing. Paper-based tests are user-friendly because the fluid flow is capillary-driven, which occurs automatically and enables the tests to be used without external devices, such as pumps. Textiles can also provide capillary-driven flow. Textiles are flexible materials made from a network of fibres formed by weaving, knitting, knotting, braiding, and other methods. There are several advantages to creating tests on textile platforms including strength and flexibility, the ability to create ordered and precise flow paths with fibre placement, the capability for coatings to alter the flow, compatibility with a wide range of fluids, and the simplicity and ubiquity of textile manufacturing around the world. Building on my group's success with paper-based microfluidic platforms, textiles present us with an exciting opportunity to create robust user-friendly tests with high precision and predictability. The objective of this research program is to expand the functionality of textile-based microfluidic test platforms by developing an understanding of the capillary-driven flow behaviour through ordered fibrous networks and to develop customized textiles to control this flow. This will be accomplished by 1) determining the influence of fibre spacing on the capillary-driven flow and using fibre patterns to provide controllable flow speeds, 2) analysing the influence of fibre types and treatments on the capillary-driven flow behaviour, and 3) examining the surface tension and capillary-driven flow behaviour of various fibre coatings. This program will then explore the application of the textile-based testing platforms for specific tests, particularly testing for recreational and illicit drugs. Anticipated Outcomes: The research supported by this grant will develop an understanding of capillary-driven flow through textile-based microfluidic platforms and develop simple methods to control the flow. Textile-based platforms can then be used to develop user-friendly tests for a wide range of diagnostic and environmental targets, with the compatibility enabling the testing of more substances than is currently possible. These tests will allow users to obtain critical and timely information about their health and the health of their surrounding environments, leading to improved health outcomes. The personnel trained under this program will acquire a valuable skillset in microfluidic test design and development that will make them suitable for careers in Canada's expanding biotech sector.