title: Generation of chemical movies: FT-IR spectroscopic imaging of segmented flows.
abstract: We have previously demonstrated that FT-IR spectroscopic imaging can be used as a powerful, label-free detection method for studying laminar flows. However, to date, the speed of image acquisition has been too slow for the efficient detection of moving droplets within segmented flow systems. In this paper, we demonstrate the extraction of fast FT-IR images with acquisition times of 50 ms. This approach allows efficient interrogation of segmented flow systems where aqueous droplets move at a speed of 2.5 mm/s. Consecutive FT-IR images separated by 120 ms intervals allow the generation of chemical movies at eight frames per second. The technique has been applied to the study of microfluidic systems containing moving droplets of water in oil and droplets of protein solution in oil. The presented work demonstrates the feasibility of the use of FT-IR imaging to study dynamic systems with subsecond temporal resolution.
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom.
authors: K L Andrew
authors: KL
authors: Chan
authors: X
authors: X
authors: Niu
authors: A J
authors: AJ
authors: deMello
authors: S G
authors: SG
authors: Kazarian