Reliable microfluidic on-chip incubation of droplets in delay-lines

作者：Lucas Frenz, Kerstin G. Blank, Eric R. Brouzes, Andrew D. Griffiths · 发表于：Lab on a Chip · 年份：2008 · DOI：10.1039/b816049j · 被引用次数：167 · 研究领域：Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation、Microfluidic and Capillary Electrophoresis Applications、Electrowetting and Microfluidic Technologies

Together with droplet creation, fusion and sorting, the incubation of droplets is one of the most important and essential operations for droplet-based microfluidic assays. This manuscript concerns the development of delay-lines, which are necessary to allow incubation of reactions for precise time periods. We analyze the problems associated with creating delay-lines for incubation in the minute to hour time range, which arise from back-pressure and from the dispersion in the incubation time due to the unequal speeds with which droplets pass through the delay-line. We describe delay-line systems which resolve these problems and demonstrate their use to measure reaction kinetics over several minutes in droplets.