Rapid microfluidic mixers
PI: Juan G. Santiago
Collaborator:
Daniel DePonte of the LCLS Sample Environment Department at SLAC National Laboratory
We are developing rapid microfluidic mixers for a variety of assays including studies of the kinetics of protein folding and enzymatic reaction rates.
Specifically, we are developing planar microfluidic devices that leverage flow structures for 3D hydrodynamic focusing to decrease the characteristic
time scale for mixing while preserving molecule-to-molecule mixing uniformity.
Our group has a strong background in developing rapid micromixers and below we show several examples.
Figure 1: Experimental image of a bulk micromixer. A center fluorescent
stream is hydrodynamically focused just upstream of a serpentine channel. Both corner vortices and Dean vortices
are exploited to effect rapid stirring of the fluid streams. The channel width and depth in the serpentine region
are both 25 microns.
We are also pursuing several designs of lamination mixers. Figure 2 and Figure 3 show examples of these.
Figure 2: Lamination micromixers. (a) Schematic of lamination mixer
wherein a center stream is hydrodynamically focused between two symmetric sheath streams initiating mixing
and a chemical reaction. (b) Simulation of flow in simple hydrodynamic focusing mixer.
Figure 3: (a) Microfabricated lamination mixer integrated with on-chip filters,
flow resistor regions, and a strongly diverging downstream/outlet region. (b) Analysis showing various values of
sheath-to-center stream flow rate ratio. Hertzog et al. showed there is an optimum sheath-to-center stream flow
rate ratio in lamination mixers.
Reference
Hertzog, D.E., X. Michalet, M. Jager, X. Kong, J.G. Santiago, S. Weiss, and O. Bakajin, "Femtomole Mixer for Microsecond Kinetic Studies of Protein Folding," Analytical Chemistry, 76, 24, pp. 7169-7178, 2004.
Hertzog, D.E., B. Ivorra, B. Mohammadi, O. Bakajin, and J.G. Santiago, "Optimization of a Fast Microfluidic Mixer for Studying Protein Folding Kinetics," Analytical Chemistry, 78, 13, pp. 4299-4306, 2006.
Ivorra, B., J.L. Redondo, and A.M. Ramos, and J. G. Santiago, "Sensitivity analysis and study of the mixing uniformity of a microfluidic mixer," Physics of Fluids, 28, 1, pp. 012005, 2016.
Ivorra, B., J.L. Redondo, J. G. Santiago, P.M. Ortigosa, and A.M. Ramos, "Two- and three-dimensional modeling and optimization applied to the design of a fast hydrodynamic focusing microfluidic mixer for protein folding," 25, 032001, Physics of Fluids, 2013