title: Passive regulation of volume-flow ratio for microfluidic streams with different hydrophilicity and viscosity.
abstract: Biochemical solutions have a wide range of hydrophilicity (contact angle and surface tension) and viscosity. A critical challenge is that microfluidic systems typically need expensive or complex pumps to control the various parallel biochemical streams. In this study, without using any pumps, we present a simple scheme that controls the ratio of the volumetric flow rate (VFR) of the parallel streams that have highly different hydrophilicity and viscosity. We accomplish this process by using capillarity to drive and merge two streams, and by regulating relative flow resistance to control the VFR ratio. Our results will significantly simplify the control of the VFR ratio for the various biochemical solutions that are used in microfluidic applications.
authors.affiliation: BioMEMS Group, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yong Taik
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Haesik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Kyuwon
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Youn Tae
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry*; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions