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Valves for autonomous capillary systems

Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, ISSN: 1613-4982, Vol: 5, Issue: 3, Page: 395-402
2008
  • 153
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 256
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    153
    • Citation Indexes
      151
    • Patent Family Citations
      2
      • Patent Families
        2
  • Captures
    256

Article Description

Autonomous capillary systems (CSs) are microfluidic systems inside which liquids move owing to capillary forces. CSs can in principle bring the high-performances of microfluidic-based analytical devices to near patient and environmental testing applications. In this paper, we show how wettable capillary valves can enhance CSs with novel functionalities, such as delaying and stopping liquids in microchannels. The valves employ an abruptly changing geometry of the flow path to delay a moving liquid filling front in a wettable microchannel. We show how to combine delay valves with capillary pumps, prevent shortcuts of liquid along the corners of microfluidic channels, stop liquids filling microchannels from a few seconds to over 30 min, trigger valves using two liquid fronts merging, and time a liquid using parallel microfluidic paths converging to a trigger valve. All together, these concepts should add functionality to passive microfluidic systems without departing from their initial simplicity of use. © Springer-Verlag 2007.

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