Artist's Depiction of the Process of Self-Coalescence in a Microchannel (IMAGE)
Caption
Artist's depiction of the process of self-coalescence in a microchannel. i) Picolitre-sized droplets of reagents are deposited by a process analogous to ink-jet printing into a microstructure, which is then sealed to form a microchannel a few tens of microns deep. ii) When the fluid sample is introduced, an air/water interface is created above the capillary pinning line at the middle of the channel. iii) The fluid is forced to make a U-turn and touch its own air/water interface, iv) causing it to "zip" along the interface, filling the channel perpendicularly to the general direction of the flow. v) In doing so, the reagents are reconstituted "on the spot" with minimal dispersion.
Credit
Polytechnique Montreal and IBM Research Zurich
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