On-demand, parallel droplet merging method with non-contact droplet pairing in droplet-based microfluidics
SCIE
SCOPUS
- Title
- On-demand, parallel droplet merging method with non-contact droplet pairing in droplet-based microfluidics
- Authors
- Sanghyun Lee; Hojin Kim; Dong-Joon Won; Jaehyung Lee; Kim, J
- Date Issued
- 2016-01
- Publisher
- SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
- Abstract
- We demonstrate a simple approach for merging droplets in an on-demand, parallel manner via noncontact pairing of two droplets. The non-contact pairing can be achieved by exploiting flow-induced deformability of a droplet with a unique structure of merging element. Non-contact paired droplets, which are initially stabilized by surfactant molecules, can be merged simply by destabilizing the droplet interface and bringing two droplets into contact. On-demand, parallel droplet merging is performed with a proper pressure profile achieved by a pneumatic pressure supply system, and merging process is solely dependent on the pressure-driven fluid flow. We achieved an average merging efficiency of 90.0 % (SD = 3.14, n = 450) in performing parallel merging in a non-contact paired droplet array. We also evaluated the on-demand merging performance by measuring the average merging delay time (mean = 3.25 s, SD +/- 1.09 s, n similar to 180). Furthermore, we demonstrated the applicability of our device for the initiation of a chemical reaction through the merging of two droplets with different chemical contents. We believe that the proposed method will be useful for studying various droplet-based reactions.
- URI
- https://oasis.postech.ac.kr/handle/2014.oak/38223
- DOI
- 10.1007/S10404-015-1676-Z
- ISSN
- 1613-4982
- Article Type
- Article
- Citation
- Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol. 20, no. 1, page. 1 - 9, 2016-01
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