Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B (대한기계학회논문집B)

The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (대한기계학회)
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Simple and Highly Efficient Droplet Merging Method Using a Microfluidic Device

미세유체소자를 이용한 간단하고 효율적인 액적의 병합

  • 진병주 (서울대학교 기계항공공학부) ;
  • 김영원 (서울대학교 기계항공공학부) ;
  • 유정열 (서울대학교 기계항공공학부, 서울대학교 정밀기계설계공동연구소)
  • Published : 2009.03.01
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Abstract

Simple and highly efficient droplet merging method is proposed, which enables two nanoliter or picoliter droplets to merge regularly in a straight microchannel. Using a cross channel with inflows of one oil phase through the main channel and two water phases through the side channels, two droplets of different sizes can be generated alternatingly in accordance with flow rate difference of the water phases. It is shown that for a fixed oil phase flow rate, the flow rate of one water phase required for alternating droplet generation increases linearly with the flow rate of another water phase. By this method, the droplets are merged with 100 % efficiency without any additional driving forces.

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References

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