9 research outputs found
Unconventional Low-Cost Fabrication and Patterning Techniques for Point of Care Diagnostics
The potential of rapid, quantitative, and sensitive diagnosis has led to many innovative ‘lab on chip’ technologies for point of care diagnostic applications. Because these chips must be designed within strict cost constraints to be widely deployable, recent research in this area has produced extremely novel non-conventional micro- and nano-fabrication innovations. These advances can be leveraged for other biological assays as well, including for custom assay development and academic prototyping. The technologies reviewed here leverage extremely low-cost substrates and easily adoptable ways to pattern both structural and biological materials at high resolution in unprecedented ways. These new approaches offer the promise of more rapid prototyping with less investment in capital equipment as well as greater flexibility in design. Though still in their infancy, these technologies hold potential to improve upon the resolution, sensitivity, flexibility, and cost-savings over more traditional approaches
Micro-Injection Moulding of Polymer Microfluidic Devices
Microfluidic devices have several applications in different fields, such as
chemistry, medicine and biotechnology. Many research activities are currently
investigating the manufacturing of integrated microfluidic devices on a mass-
production scale with relatively low costs. This is especially important for
applications where disposable devices are used for medical analysis.
Micromoulding of thermoplastic polymers is a developing process with great
potential for producing low-cost microfluidic devices. Among different
micromoulding techniques, micro-injection moulding is one of the most promising
processes suitable for manufacturing polymeric disposable microfluidic devices.
This review paper aims at presenting the main significant developments that have
been achieved in different aspects of micro-injection moulding of microfluidic
devices. Aspects covered include device design, machine capabilities, mould
manufacturing, material selection and process parameters. Problems, challenges
and potential areas for research are highlighted
Remediation experiment of Ecuadorian acid mine drainage: geochemical models of dissolved species and secondary minerals saturation
Acid mine drainage is one of the main environmental hazards to ecosystems worldwide and it is directly related to mining activities. In Ecuador, such acidic-metallic waters are drained to rivers without treatment. In this research, we tested a laboratory combined (Ca-Mg) Dispersed Alkaline Substrate (DAS) system as an alternative to remediate acid drainage from the Zaruma-Portovelo gold mining site, at El Oro, Ecuador. The system worked at low and high flow hydraulic rates during a period of 8 months, without signs of saturation.. Analysis of physico-chemical parameters and water composition (ICP-OES, ICP-MS) demonstrated that treatment effectively increased water pH and promoted the retention of about 80% of Fe, Al, Mn and Cu. Under acid conditions As, Cr and Pb concentrations decreased with Fe and possible precipitation of jarosite and schwertmannite. However, the homogeneous depletion of Cr at pH above 6 could be related to ferrihydrite or directly with Cr (OH)(3) precipitation. After DAS-Ca, sulphate, phosphate and rare earth elements (REE) concentrations decreased to 1912, 0.85 and 0.07 mg/L respectively, while DAS-Mg contributed to form a complex model of minor carbonate and phosphate phases as main sink of REE. DAS-Mg also promoted the retention of most divalent metals at pH values over seven. Thus, this low cost treatment could avoid environmental pollution and international conflicts. Anyway, further investigations are needed to obtain higher Zn retention values.PROMETEO Ecuadorian program (Secretary of Superior Education, Science, Technology and Innovation)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio