Multiple injection techniques for microfluidic sample handling.
This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation into electrokinetic focusing flow injection for bioanalytical applications on 1 x N (i.e., 1 sample inlet port and N outlet ports) and M x N (i.e., M sample inlet ports and N outlet ports) microfluidic chips. A novel device is presented which integrates two important microfluidic phenomena, namely electrokinetic focusing and valveless flow switching within multiported microchannels. The study proposes a voltage control model which achieves electrokinetic focusing in a prefocusing sample injection system and which allows the volume of the sample to be controlled. Using the developed methods, the study shows how the sample may be prefocused electrokinetically into a narrow stream prior to being injected continuously into specified outlet ports. The microfluidic chips presented within this paper possess an exciting potential for use in a variety of techniques, including high-throughput chemical analysis, cell fusion, fraction collection, fast sample mixing, and many other applications within the micrototalanalysis systems field.
Fu
Lung-Ming
LM
Graduate Institute of Materials Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan.
Yang
Ruey-Jen
RJ
Lee
Gwo-Bin
GB
Pan
Yu-Jen
YJ
D001331:Automation; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D007525:Isoelectric Focusing; D008433:Mathematics; D044085:Microfluidics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013048:Specimen Handling