title: Hydrophilic strips for preventing air bubble formation in a microfluidic chamber.
abstract: In a microfluidic chamber, unwanted formation of air bubbles is a critical problem. Here, we present a hydrophilic strip array that prevents air bubble formation in a microfluidic chamber. The array is located on the top surface of the chamber, which has a large variation in width, and consists of a repeated arrangement of super- and moderately hydrophilic strips. This repeated arrangement allows a flat meniscus (i.e. liquid front) to form when various solutions consisting of a single stream or two parallel streams with different hydrophilicities move through the chamber. The flat meniscus produced by the array completely prevents the formation of bubbles. Without the array in the chamber, the meniscus shape is highly convex, and bubbles frequently form in the chamber. This hydrophilic strip array will facilitate the use of a microfluidic chamber with a large variation in width for various microfluidic applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Munseok
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Na
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D004867:Equipment Design; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*
keywords: Bubble formation; Capillary flow; Hydrophilic; Meniscus; Microfluidics