Solution Mixing Chip Development Service
Inquiry
In order to meet the needs of precise chemical and biological research, Creative Biolabs provides clients all over the world with the most stable, easy-to-operate and customizable microfluidic liquid phase mixing chips.
Microfluidic Solution Mixing Chip
Microfluidic devices are widely applied in the fields of microbiology, precision synthesis, biomedical diagnostics, and drug development. In channels with micrometer dimensions, the flow scale is usually small, which means a higher surface area/volume ratio and is beneficial for many applications. In the fields of chemical synthesis and biological analysis, it is usually necessary to mix reactants, and the success of the experiment is largely related to the mixing degree and speed of the reactants. However, in typical microfluidic systems and low Reynolds number environments, turbulent mixing between liquid phases does not occur, while slow intrinsic diffusion mixing dominates. Under such conditions, the mixing process that can be achieved by turbulent flow in a few seconds in traditional experiments often takes hours or even days.
Fluid dynamics knowledge and advanced microfabrication technology platform allow Creative Biolabs to design, develop and construct stable microfluidic mixing chips for customers all over the world. Our chip will achieve rapid and thorough mixing of reactants through chaotic flow and non-chaotic means.
Fig 1. Microfluidic mixing design for passive mixing. (Shanko, et al., 2019)
Non-chaotic mixing chip still does not generate turbulent or parasitic flow to promote the mixing of the liquid phase, but promotes effective diffusion along the flow direction by reducing the size and channel width of the system. In this type of chip, two fluid streams with different compositions enter the intersection and flow into converging channels of a smaller cross-sectional area. The mixing effect is determined by the liquid flow rate and the diffusion speed, and the diffusion mixing time is directly related to the diffusion distance, so the miniaturization of the system size will promote more effective but faster liquid mixing. By shrinking the size of the system to the micron or even nanometer level, the mixing time will also be reduced to the order of microseconds. However, it is worth noting that although the effect is good in the aqueous phase solution, the mixing time mediated by free diffusion will be greatly prolonged as the molecular weight of the reactant increases.
Fig 2. Diffusion efficiency varies with flow velocity and distance under pure diffusion conditions. (Bratsun, et al., 2022)
Chaotic mixing is a more commonly used design than non-chaotic mixing. In such chips, the liquid phase will be unsteady using two-dimensional turbulent flow or three-dimensional background to generate trajectory chaos. Applying this theory, Creative Biolabs has developed a passive herringbone chaotic mixer that does not require additional external disturbance sources or parasitic flow, but periodically distributes chevron-shaped grooves along the microfluidic channel. These structural units will force the fluid to develop obliquely and eventually form a helical fluid motion as it passes through them. Flow analysis revealed that every fifth chevron pattern induces a large change in flow from a relatively stationary to a non-stationary state. The alternate arrangement of multiple structural units can realize rapid (millisecond or even sub-millisecond) mixing of reagents.
Fig.3 Confocal image of chaotic flow microfluidic mixing chip. (Oevreeide, et al., 2021)
In addition, we also provide a series of microfluidic chips that utilize mixed flow theory and chaotic advection to rapidly mix reactants. These structurally designed chips provide more uniform mixing and higher reaction rates for experiments through two-dimensional turbulent flow or three-dimensional forced convection.
Our Services
Creative Biolabs assists our clients to make full use of the advantages of microfluidic systems, and achieving rapid and uniform mixing of reactants to meet various experimental needs. We provide mature and proven chaotic flow mixing chips, which can realize non-dispersion transport and rapid mixing of reagents. This type of chip is especially suitable for chemical kinetics and biological detection. In addition, we also develop, design and manufacture microfluidic mixing chips with different channel topologies and feature sizes for our clients based on other kinetic models. Our well-trained staff and cutting-edge micro-processing technology platform gained us the ability to construct microfluidic platforms with good mixing efficiency and a suitable kinetic model for you at a reasonable cost, so don't hesitate to contact us for any needs.
References
-
Shanko, E.S.; et al. Microfluidic magnetic mixing at low Reynolds numbers and in stagnant fluids. Micromachines. 2019, 10: 731.
-
Bratsun, D.; et al. On the efficiency of convective mixing in a Y-shaped channel. Journal of Physics. 2021, 23: 1742.
-
Oevreeide, I.H.; et al. Curved passive mixing structures: a robust design to obtain efficient mixing and mass transfer in microfluidic channels. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. 2021, 31: 015006.
For Research Use Only. Not For Clinical Use.
