Thermally-actuated microfluidic membrane valve for point-of-care applications.
| Autor: | Sesen M; Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ UK., Rowlands CJ; Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ UK. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Microsystems & nanoengineering [Microsyst Nanoeng] 2021 Jun 15; Vol. 7, pp. 48. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jun 15 (Print Publication: 2021). |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41378-021-00260-3 |
| Abstrakt: | Microfluidics has enabled low volume biochemistry reactions to be carried out at the point-of-care. A key component in microfluidics is the microfluidic valve. Microfluidic valves are not only useful for directing flow at intersections but also allow mixtures/dilutions to be tuned real-time and even provide peristaltic pumping capabilities. In the transition from chip-in-a-lab to lab-on-a-chip, it is essential to ensure that microfluidic valves are designed to require less peripheral equipment and that they are transportable. In this paper, a thermally-actuated microfluidic valve is presented. The valve itself is fabricated with off-the-shelf components without the need for sophisticated cleanroom techniques. It is shown that multiple valves can be controlled and operated via a power supply and an Arduino microcontroller; an important step towards transportable microfluidic devices capable of carrying out analytical assays at the point-of-care. It is been calculated that a single actuator costs less than $1, this highlights the potential of the presented valve for scaling out. The valve operation is demonstrated by adjusting the ratio of a water/dye mixture in a continuous flow microfluidic chip with Y-junction channel geometry. The power required to operate one microfluidic valve has been characterised both theoretically and experimentally. Cyclical operation of the valve has been demonstrated for 65 h with 585 actuations. The presented valve is capable of actuating rectangular microfluidic channels of 500 μm × 50 μm with an expected temperature increase of up to 5 °C. The fastest actuation times achieved were 2 s for valve closing (heating) and 9 s for valve opening (cooling). Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. (© The Author(s) 2021.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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