A MICRODROPLET SYSTEM FOR BIOCHEMICAL APPLICATIONS

摘要

Microfluidic droplet systems have shown great promise and numerous advantages in the recent development of high throughput chemical and biochemical assays. With precise metering and manipulation of reagents at small scale, various applications such as protein crystallization [1], nanoparticle synthesis [2], physiological fluids diagnostics [3] and etc. have employed such systems and achieved success. Current methods often utilize electrohydrodynamics and shear force [4] between immiscible fluids, requiring precise flow and sometimes computer control which may be costly and complex. We report a unique droplet generation method that utilizes the geometric design of the channel to form drops of predetermined volumes with the aid of centrifugal force without any complex flow system control required. The location of each drop is also pre-programmed by the geometric configuration of the system. The specific design of the fluidic section allows the droplet to form during a spinning process which converts the aqueous stream in oil to a series of droplets along the direction of centrifugal force. Storage reservoirs connected to the fluidic channel then store the formed droplets. Since the droplets form under non-flow conditions, the method is not particularly sensitive to flow rate. Therefore, the device does not require complicated external flow control. This system is intended for researchers to perform simple and manual operation and generate a biochemical assay within minutes.