Coalescence of Surfactant-Stabilized Adjacent Droplets Using Surface Acoustic Waves
| Autor: | Muhsincan Sesen, Adrian Neild, Armaghan Fakhfouri |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
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Microfluidics 0904 Chemical Engineering 02 engineering and technology HIGH-THROUGHPUT 01 natural sciences Buffer (optical fiber) Analytical Chemistry Physics::Fluid Dynamics FUSION Pulmonary surfactant PICOLITER DROPLETS 0399 Other Chemical Sciences Physics::Atomic and Molecular Clusters CELL ENCAPSULATION LABEL-FREE Coalescence (physics) Science & Technology Chemistry Chemistry Analytical 010401 analytical chemistry Surface acoustic wave Ranging Acoustic wave Mechanics 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology 0104 chemical sciences Physical Sciences SEPARATION MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE 0210 nano-technology 0301 Analytical Chemistry Excitation GENERATION |
| Zdroj: | Analytical Chemistry. 91:7538-7545 |
| ISSN: | 1520-6882 0003-2700 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b05456 |
| Popis: | A novel, on-demand microfluidic droplet merging mechanism is presented in this paper. We demonstrate that a narrow beam surface acoustic wave, targeted at the oil buffer, causes nearby surfactant-stabilized droplets to coalesce. The lack of direct exposure of the droplet to the excitation stimulus makes this method ideal for sensitive samples as harm will not occur. This powerful technique works on a straight channel with no special design, is not affected by surfactant concentration and droplet volume hence promises seamless integration into existing microfluidic systems. It offers high-throughput, biologically safe, on-demand droplet merging for applications ranging from fast reaction kinetics to microfluidic high throughput screening. We thoroughly characterize the physical mechanism triggering droplet-droplet coalescence and observe a cutoff distance from the center of the acoustic beam to the droplet-droplet interface after which the merging mechanism does not work anymore. We establish that the most likely mechanism for merging is acoustic streaming induced droplet deformation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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