Reliable microfluidic on-chip incubation of droplets in delay-lines.
Together with droplet creation, fusion and sorting, the incubation of droplets is one of the most important and essential operations for droplet-based microfluidic assays. This manuscript concerns the development of delay-lines, which are necessary to allow incubation of reactions for precise time periods. We analyze the problems associated with creating delay-lines for incubation in the minute to hour time range, which arise from back-pressure and from the dispersion in the incubation time due to the unequal speeds with which droplets pass through the delay-line. We describe delay-line systems which resolve these problems and demonstrate their use to measure reaction kinetics over several minutes in droplets.
Frenz
Lucas
L
Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS), Université Louis Pasteur, 67083, Strasbourg Cedex, France.
Blank
Kerstin
K
Brouzes
Eric
E
Griffiths
Andrew D
AD
D004798:Enzymes; D004867:Equipment Design; D007700:Kinetics; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016011:Normal Distribution; D011312:Pressure; D013997:Time Factors; D014783:Viscosity
D004798:Enzymes