title: Interfacing digital microfluidics with high-field nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
abstract: Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is extremely powerful for chemical analysis but it suffers from lower mass sensitivity compared to many other analytical detection methods. NMR microcoils have been developed in response to this limitation, but interfacing these coils with small sample volumes is a challenge. We introduce here the first digital microfluidic system capable of interfacing droplets of analyte with microcoils in a high-field NMR spectrometer. A finite element simulation was performed to assist in determining appropriate system parameters. After optimization, droplets inside the spectrometer could be controlled remotely, permitting the observation of processes such as xylose-borate complexation and glucose oxidase catalysis. We propose that the combination of DMF and NMR will be a useful new tool for a wide range of applications in chemical analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3H6, Canada. aaron.wheeler@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Swyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1256 Military Trail, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada. andre.simpson@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soong
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3H6, Canada. aaron.wheeler@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Michael D M
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Dryden
authors.affiliation: Bruker BioSpin Corp, 15 Fortune Drive, Billerica, Massachusetts 01821-3991, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fey
authors.affiliation: Bruker BioSpin Corp, 15 Fortune Drive, Billerica, Massachusetts 01821-3991, USA.
authors.forename: Werner E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Maas
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1256 Military Trail, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada. andre.simpson@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3H6, Canada. aaron.wheeler@utoronto.ca and Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, 160 College St, Toronto, ON M5S 3E1, Canada and Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 164 College St, Toronto, ON M5S 3G9, Canada.
authors.forename: Aaron R
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5230-7475
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Wheeler
mesh_terms: D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018511:Systems Integration