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Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems

Nanofibres are increasingly being used in the field of bioanalytics due to their large surface-area-to-volume ratios and easy-to-functionalize surfaces. To date, nanofibres have been studied as effective filters, concentrators, and immobilization matrices within microfluidic devices. In addition, th...

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Autores principales: Matlock-Colangelo, Lauren, Colangelo, Nicholas W., Fenzl, Christoph, Frey, Margaret W., Baeumner, Antje J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5017403/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27527184
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s16081238
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author Matlock-Colangelo, Lauren
Colangelo, Nicholas W.
Fenzl, Christoph
Frey, Margaret W.
Baeumner, Antje J.
author_facet Matlock-Colangelo, Lauren
Colangelo, Nicholas W.
Fenzl, Christoph
Frey, Margaret W.
Baeumner, Antje J.
author_sort Matlock-Colangelo, Lauren
collection PubMed
description Nanofibres are increasingly being used in the field of bioanalytics due to their large surface-area-to-volume ratios and easy-to-functionalize surfaces. To date, nanofibres have been studied as effective filters, concentrators, and immobilization matrices within microfluidic devices. In addition, they are frequently used as optical and electrochemical transduction materials. In this work, we demonstrate that electrospun nanofibre mats cause appreciable passive mixing and therefore provide dual functionality when incorporated within microfluidic systems. Specifically, electrospun nanofibre mats were integrated into Y-shaped poly(methyl methacrylate) microchannels and the degree of mixing was quantified using fluorescence microscopy and ImageJ analysis. The degree of mixing afforded in relationship to fibre diameter, mat height, and mat length was studied. We observed that the most mixing was caused by small diameter PVA nanofibres (450–550 nm in diameter), producing up to 71% mixing at the microchannel outlet, compared to up to 51% with polystyrene microfibres (0.8–2.7 μm in diameter) and 29% mixing in control channels containing no fibres. The mixing afforded by the PVA nanofibres is caused by significant inhomogeneity in pore size and distribution leading to percolation. As expected, within all the studies, fluid mixing increased with fibre mat height, which corresponds to the vertical space of the microchannel occupied by the fibre mats. Doubling the height of the fibre mat led to an average increase in mixing of 14% for the PVA nanofibres and 8% for the PS microfibres. Overall, mixing was independent of the length of the fibre mat used (3–10 mm), suggesting that most mixing occurs as fluid enters and exits the fibre mat. The mixing effects observed within the fibre mats were comparable to or better than many passive mixers reported in literature. Since the nanofibre mats can be further functionalized to couple analyte concentration, immobilization, and detection with enhanced fluid mixing, they are a promising nanomaterial providing dual-functionality within lab-on-a-chip devices.
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spelling pubmed-50174032016-09-22 Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems Matlock-Colangelo, Lauren Colangelo, Nicholas W. Fenzl, Christoph Frey, Margaret W. Baeumner, Antje J. Sensors (Basel) Article Nanofibres are increasingly being used in the field of bioanalytics due to their large surface-area-to-volume ratios and easy-to-functionalize surfaces. To date, nanofibres have been studied as effective filters, concentrators, and immobilization matrices within microfluidic devices. In addition, they are frequently used as optical and electrochemical transduction materials. In this work, we demonstrate that electrospun nanofibre mats cause appreciable passive mixing and therefore provide dual functionality when incorporated within microfluidic systems. Specifically, electrospun nanofibre mats were integrated into Y-shaped poly(methyl methacrylate) microchannels and the degree of mixing was quantified using fluorescence microscopy and ImageJ analysis. The degree of mixing afforded in relationship to fibre diameter, mat height, and mat length was studied. We observed that the most mixing was caused by small diameter PVA nanofibres (450–550 nm in diameter), producing up to 71% mixing at the microchannel outlet, compared to up to 51% with polystyrene microfibres (0.8–2.7 μm in diameter) and 29% mixing in control channels containing no fibres. The mixing afforded by the PVA nanofibres is caused by significant inhomogeneity in pore size and distribution leading to percolation. As expected, within all the studies, fluid mixing increased with fibre mat height, which corresponds to the vertical space of the microchannel occupied by the fibre mats. Doubling the height of the fibre mat led to an average increase in mixing of 14% for the PVA nanofibres and 8% for the PS microfibres. Overall, mixing was independent of the length of the fibre mat used (3–10 mm), suggesting that most mixing occurs as fluid enters and exits the fibre mat. The mixing effects observed within the fibre mats were comparable to or better than many passive mixers reported in literature. Since the nanofibre mats can be further functionalized to couple analyte concentration, immobilization, and detection with enhanced fluid mixing, they are a promising nanomaterial providing dual-functionality within lab-on-a-chip devices. MDPI 2016-08-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5017403/ /pubmed/27527184 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s16081238 Text en © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Matlock-Colangelo, Lauren
Colangelo, Nicholas W.
Fenzl, Christoph
Frey, Margaret W.
Baeumner, Antje J.
Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems
title Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems
title_full Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems
title_fullStr Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems
title_full_unstemmed Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems
title_short Passive Mixing Capabilities of Micro- and Nanofibres When Used in Microfluidic Systems
title_sort passive mixing capabilities of micro- and nanofibres when used in microfluidic systems
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5017403/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27527184
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s16081238
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