Effects of Micropatterning and Surface Modification of Microfluidic Channels on Capillary Water Transport

AbstractThis work is intended to characterize the fluid conducting behaviour of microcapillary systems containing various 3D microstructures and surface modifying molecular layers. The microchannels are patterned by secondary structures mimicking the natural water-conducting tissue (xylem) of dry-habitat plants. The complex microstructure of the microcapillary system was developed by bulk silicon micromachining technology, applying multistep Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) to fabricate and pattern the microfluidic channels subsequently. The inner surfaces of the capillary systems were covered by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) of different oxide layers to control their wetting properties. We demonstrated that the fluid conducting behaviour of the fabricated capillary systems can be systematically controlled by structural patterning and surface modification of the channels

Optimized Simulation and Validation of Particle Advection in Asymmetric Staggered Herringbone Type Micromixers

This paper presents and compares two different strategies in the numerical simulation of passive microfluidic mixers based on chaotic advection. In addition to flow velocity field calculations, concentration distributions of molecules and trajectories of microscale particles were determined and compared to evaluate the performance of the applied modeling approaches in the proposed geometries. A staggered herringbone type micromixer (SHM) was selected and studied in order to demonstrate finite element modeling issues. The selected microstructures were fabricated by a soft lithography technique, utilizing multilayer SU-8 epoxy-based photoresist as a molding replica for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) casting. The mixing processes in the microfluidic systems were characterized by applying molecular and particle (cell) solutions and adequate microscopic visualization techniques. We proved that modeling of the molecular concentration field is more costly, in regards to computational time, than the particle trajectory based method. However, both approaches showed adequate qualitative agreement with the experimental results

Fabrication of Hybrid Microfluidic System on Transparent Substrates for Electrochemical Applications

In this work the critical aspects of the process sequence developed for fabrication of hybrid polymer microfluidic systems integrating metal electrode pattern and precisely aligned microfluidic structure are discussed in details. Glass and polycarbonate were considered as primary transparent substrate materials for metal (Au, Pt) electrode deposition and the microchannels were formed in multi-layered SU-8 negative photoresist. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) layer was proposed as cover layer to ensure proper sealing and sample inlet formation

In-situ surface modification of microfluidic channels by integrated plasma source

In-situ modification of originally hydrophobic polymer surfaces by local plasma enhanced oxidation and its application in electrically controlled fluid capillary systems are demonstrated. A microfabricated coplanar dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma source was developed [1, 2], integrated and applied to modify in-situ the surface properties of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) capillary channels. The local, immediate and successful setting of the wettability of the polymer microchannels is proved by development of effective water transport in the system subsequently the plasma treatment. The use of microfluidically integrated DBD microplasma system as switchable capillary pump is also presented. © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Modelling and Characterisation of Droplet Generation and Trapping in Cell Analytical Two-Phase Microfluidic System

Present study analyses the influence of flow characteristics of special water-oil two-phase microfluidic systems regarding the droplet generation, cell encapsulation and trapping processes. Water droplets were dispersed in oil continuous phase with the requirement of precise size distribution to enable effective cell entrapment. The evolving droplet size and the number of encapsulated cells were examined considering the applied flow rate ratios of the two phases. The hydrodynamic behaviour of the microfluidic system was modelled by Finite Element Method (FEM) coupled with particle trajectory calculation applying COMSOL Multiphysics code. The experimental results were compared to the simulation and the applicability of our droplet based cell encapsulating and trapping microfluidic system was characterised

Automated single cell isolation from suspension with computer vision

Current robots can manipulate only surface-attached cells seriously limiting the fields of their application for single cell handling. We developed a computer vision-based robot applying a motorized microscope and micropipette to recognize and gently isolate intact individual cells for subsequent analysis, e.g., DNA/RNA sequencing in 1–2 nanoliters from a thin (~100 μm) layer of cell suspension. It can retrieve rare cells, needs minimal sample preparation, and can be applied for virtually any tissue cell type. Combination of 1 μm positioning precision, adaptive cell targeting and below 1 nl liquid handling precision resulted in an unprecedented accuracy and efficiency in robotic single cell isolation. Single cells were injected either into the wells of a miniature plate with a sorting speed of 3 cells/min or into standard PCR tubes with 2 cells/min. We could isolate labeled cells also from dense cultures containing ~1,000 times more unlabeled cells by the successive application of the sorting process. We compared the efficiency of our method to that of single cell entrapment in microwells and subsequent sorting with the automated micropipette: the recovery rate of single cells was greatly improved

Effects of embedded surfactants on the surface properties of PDMS; applicability for autonomous microfluidic systems

Controlled surface modification of the PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) was developed and studied in this work to develop autonomous capillary-driven microfluidic system to be applied in bioanalytical devices. The characteristics of the PDMS surfaces were modified by embedding adequate surfactant molecules in the polymer matrix to be moved onto the free surface by diffusion. The change of the surface characteristics was studied considering the expected performance in autonomous biomicrofluidic applications and the influence on non-specific human blood protein binding also. The method was evaluated from technological aspects also, as the integrability of the microfluidic system, considering the previously published results critically. Compositions were defined to be adequate for fabrication autonomous capillary system with enhanced transport efficiency and moderated non-specific protein adsorption

Design, realisation and validation of microfluidic stochastic mixers integrable in bioanalytical systems using CFD modeling

In this work we present the design aspects of special microfluidic structures applicable to dilute and transport analyte solutions (such as whole blood) to the sensing area of biosensors. Our goal is to design and realise a reliable microfluidic system which is applicable for effective sample transport and can accomplish simple sample preparation functions such as mixing to ensure homogeneous concentration distribution of the species along the fluidic channel. The behaviour of different chaotic mixers were analysed by numerical modeling and experimentally to determine their efficiency. At first we used the concentration distribution method, however because of numerical diffusion this required higher mesh resolutions. Using the particle tracing method is more efficient according to the experimental results and requires lower computational effort. The microstructures were realised by micro-fabrication in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and integrated into a real microfluidic transport system. The functional performance was verified by biological analyte