Coalescence of surfactant-stabilised adjacent droplets using surface acoustic waves
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Sesen, Muhsincan
Fakhfouri, Armaghan
Neild, Adrian
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
A novel, on-demand microfluidic droplet merging mechanism is presented in this paper. We demonstrate that a narrow beam surface acoustic wave (SAW), targeted at the oil buffer, causes nearby droplets to coalesce. The lack of direct exposure of the droplet to the excitation stimulus makes this method ideal for sensitive samples as harm will not occur. This powerful technique works on a straight channel with no special design, is not affected by surfactant concentration and droplet volume hence promises seamless integration into existing microfluidic systems. It offers high-throughput, biologically safe, on-demand droplet merging for applications ranging from fast reaction kinetics to microfluidic high throughput screening (uHTS). We thoroughly characterise the physical mechanism triggering droplet-droplet coalescence and observe a cut-off distance from the centre of the acoustic beam to the droplet-droplet interface after which the merging mechanism does not work any more. We establish that the most likely mechanism for merging is acoustic streaming induced droplet deformation.
Date Issued
2019-05-17
Date Acceptance
2019-05-17
Citation
Analytical Chemistry, 2019, 91 (12), pp.7538-7545
ISSN
0003-2700
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
7538
End Page
7545
Journal / Book Title
Analytical Chemistry
Volume
91
Issue
12
Copyright Statement
© 2019 American Chemical Society. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Analytical Chemistry, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.8b05456.
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31099234
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Chemistry, Analytical
Chemistry
HIGH-THROUGHPUT
LABEL-FREE
MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE
PICOLITER DROPLETS
CELL
FUSION
ENCAPSULATION
GENERATION
SEPARATION
FLOW
0301 Analytical Chemistry
0904 Chemical Engineering
0399 Other Chemical Sciences
Analytical Chemistry
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2019-05-17