| Info. | Vol.3 - No.3 (2009.09.20) |
|---|---|
| Title | Interfacial Tension-Mediated Droplet Fusion in Rectangular Microchannels |
| Authors | Jongin Hong1,2, Minsuk Choi3, Andrew J. deMello1 & Joshua B. Edel1,2 |
| Institutions | 1Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London,
South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK 2Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.B. Edel (joshua.edel@imperial.ac.uk) and A.J. deMello (a.demello@imperial.ac.uk) |
| Abstract | We successfully demonstrate the merging of aqueous droplets within a microfluidic channel mediated by a difference in interfacial tension. Interfacial tension is shown to have a significant influence on the hydrodynamic forces associated with a segmented flow in a rectangular microchannel and results in the possibility of merging multiple droplets in a simple fashion. This facility is important in allowing droplet-based microfluidic systems to be used as synthetic tools in complex reaction processing. |
| Keyword | Droplet-based microfluidics, Droplet fusion, Interfacial tension, Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Ferrofluid |
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