Microfluidic flow in printed fracture channel

在项目的最后阶段，2021年结束，我开始与一个遗传学研究小组合作，帮助开发微流体的有组织微颤过程。在此之前，我很难将水基溶液放入多孔的OM聚合物薄膜中。普通添加剂和表面活性剂取得了较小的成功。通过这次新的合作，我们成功地确定了一些化学物质，使水基解决方案能够在我的OM通道中流动。有了这一突破，我们能够在OM电影方面取得其他里程碑式的成就。相关的生物物质，如蛋白质和糖类可以进入通道，并可以通过荧光显微镜进行追踪。最后，我们能够实现不同分子量生物材料的分离，包括蛋白质和糖苷的分离，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，这样较大的分子就被孔隙阻挡了。这些成果已被收录在提交给《自然通讯》的一篇论文中。与同样的合作者，我还研究了如何在没有毛细管作用的情况下通过OM薄膜移动液体。微流体OM的一个缺点是缺乏泵送能力。在此期间，我尝试将电泳应用于我的OM薄膜。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.