Submission Type
Event
Expected Graduation Date
2018
Location
Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Start Date
4-18-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
4-18-2015 3:00 PM
Disciplines
Physics
Abstract
Known as the fundamental “lab on a chip” technology, microfluidics is a thriving young research area that first took off in the 1990s. It is commonly used for reducing the amount of material required for biochemical analysis, such DNA sequencing. Its narrow tunnels can annihilate turbulence even in high-speed fluid flow, facilitating controlled, systematic processing. Also, by leveraging lithographic techniques developed for the semiconductor industry, enormous capability can be integrated into a single microfluidic chip. We have thus far utilized templates designed and fabricated by previous students in our lab, for fabrication of a series of microfluidic chips, made of transparent silicone rubber, which we seal to microscope coverslips via oxygen plasma activation of the rubber surfaces (which makes them sticky enough to adhere to glass).
Our next step is to generate, at high speeds, many droplets of nearly identical, microscopic dimensions, to ensure that we can stabilize these droplets against coalescence upon collection, and that we can optically trap and manipulate these droplets within the confines of the original microfluidic chip.
Subsequently, we plan to incorporate entrained nanocomponents into each droplet generated (quantum dots at first, and, later on, DNA origami, or diamond microparticles containing Nitrogen vacancy defects). The collected droplets can be manipulated with much higher precision by optical traps than would be possible with direct trapping of the nanocomponents. The long-term potential of our research purposes seems significant (ranging from development of DNA-based information storage technologies to weak magnetic field detection for basic physics research).
Included in
Microfluidic Generator of Sub-10-Micron Hydrosomes
Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Known as the fundamental “lab on a chip” technology, microfluidics is a thriving young research area that first took off in the 1990s. It is commonly used for reducing the amount of material required for biochemical analysis, such DNA sequencing. Its narrow tunnels can annihilate turbulence even in high-speed fluid flow, facilitating controlled, systematic processing. Also, by leveraging lithographic techniques developed for the semiconductor industry, enormous capability can be integrated into a single microfluidic chip. We have thus far utilized templates designed and fabricated by previous students in our lab, for fabrication of a series of microfluidic chips, made of transparent silicone rubber, which we seal to microscope coverslips via oxygen plasma activation of the rubber surfaces (which makes them sticky enough to adhere to glass).
Our next step is to generate, at high speeds, many droplets of nearly identical, microscopic dimensions, to ensure that we can stabilize these droplets against coalescence upon collection, and that we can optically trap and manipulate these droplets within the confines of the original microfluidic chip.
Subsequently, we plan to incorporate entrained nanocomponents into each droplet generated (quantum dots at first, and, later on, DNA origami, or diamond microparticles containing Nitrogen vacancy defects). The collected droplets can be manipulated with much higher precision by optical traps than would be possible with direct trapping of the nanocomponents. The long-term potential of our research purposes seems significant (ranging from development of DNA-based information storage technologies to weak magnetic field detection for basic physics research).