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Integrated Microfluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Analysis

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A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "C：Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2018) | Viewed by 39127

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. R. Michael van Dam

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Guest Editor

1. Crump Institute of Molecular Imaging, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
2. Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Interests: microfluidics; radiochemical synthesis; radiochemical analysis; automation; molecular imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past 2-3 decades there has been tremendous growth in the sophistication, performance, and robustness of diverse microfluidic technologies for chemical synthesis and analysis. Microfluidic techniques offer significant advantages over their conventional counterparts, including vastly reduced sample and reagent consumption, shorter analysis times, higher detection sensitivity, improved uniformity and control of reaction conditions and increased multiplexing or parallelism.

Another key feature of microfluidics is the ability to integrate multiple system components into a single device, which reduces the need for bulky external actuators and detectors, enabling extremely compact overall system size and low cost. This is particularly important for chemical synthesis and analysis applications in the “field” (e.g., detecting of pollutants or chemical warfare agents in the environment, monitoring safety and quality of food, etc.) or at the “point of care” (e.g., performing clinical diagnostic tests, preparing and testing the safety of short-lived radiopharmaceuticals, etc.). Integration also paves the way to fully-automated synthesis and analysis, enabling operation in remote locations or hazardous environments, and enabling operation by non-chemists.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to showcase recent novel developments in microfluidic chemical synthesis and analysis systems, with particular focus on technologies or applications that demonstrate a high degree of compactness, portability, or automation.

Prof. Dr. R. Michael van Dam

Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Micro total analysis systems
Lab on a chip
Chemical analysis
Chemical separation
Chemical detection
Microfluidic integration
Point-of-care testing
In-the-field testing
Chemical reactions
Chemical synthesis

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 3361 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Simultaneous Measurement of Viscosity and Optical Density of Bacterial Growth and Death in a Microdroplet

by Karolina Sklodowska, Pawel R. Debski, Jacek A. Michalski, Piotr M. Korczyk, Miroslaw Dolata, Miroslaw Zajac and Slawomir Jakiela

Micromachines 2018, 9(5), 251; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9050251 - 21 May 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5701

Abstract

Herein, we describe a novel method for the assessment of droplet viscosity moving inside microfluidic channels. The method allows for the monitoring of the rate of the continuous growth of bacterial culture. It is based on the analysis of the hydrodynamic resistance of a droplet that is present in a microfluidic channel, which affects its motion. As a result, we were able to observe and quantify the change in the viscosity of the dispersed phase that is caused by the increasing population of interacting bacteria inside a size-limited system. The technique allows for finding the correlation between the viscosity of the medium with a bacterial culture and its optical density. These features, together with the high precision of the measurement, make our viscometer a promising tool for various experiments in the field of analytical chemistry and microbiology, where the rigorous control of the conditions of the reaction and the monitoring of the size of bacterial culture are vital. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Microfluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Analysis)

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12 pages, 17277 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

An FEP Microfluidic Reactor for Photochemical Reactions

by Tomasz Szymborski, Paweł Jankowski, Dominika Ogończyk and Piotr Garstecki

Micromachines 2018, 9(4), 156; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9040156 - 30 Mar 2018

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5988

Abstract

Organic syntheses based on photochemical reactions play an important role in the medical, pharmaceutical, and polymeric chemistry. For years, photochemistry was performed using high-pressure mercury lamps and immersion-wells. However, due to excellent yield, control of temperature, selectivity, low consumption of reagents and safety, the microreactors made of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) tubings have recently been used more frequently. Fluoropolymers are the material of choice for many types of syntheses due to their chemical compatibility and low surface energy. The use of tubing restricts the freedom in designing 2D and 3D geometries of the sections of the microreactors, mixing sections, etc., that are easily achievable in the format of a planar chip. A chip microreactor made of FEP is impracticable to develop due to its high chemical inertness and high melting temperature, both of which make it difficult (or impossible) to bond two plates of polymer. Here, we demonstrate a ‘click’ system, where the two plates of FEP are joined together mechanically using a tenon and a mortise. The concept was presented by us previously for a preparation polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) microreactor (Szymborski et al. Sensors Actuators, B Chem. 2017, doi:10.1016/j.snb.2017.09.035). Here, we use the same strategy for FEP plates, test the use of the chips in photochemistry and also describe a custom-designed non-transparent polyethylene (PE) mask-holder with a circular opening to guide and focus the ultraviolet (UV) illumination. The solutions that we describe offer tight microreactor chips, preventing any leakage either of the liquid reagents or of UV light outside the reactor. This allows for conducting photochemical synthesis without a fume hood and without special protection against UV radiation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Microfluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Analysis)

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4756 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Microfluidical Microwave Reactor for Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles

by Jan Macioszczyk, Olga Rac-Rumijowska, Piotr Słobodzian, Helena Teterycz and Karol Malecha

Micromachines 2017, 8(11), 318; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi8110318 - 26 Oct 2017

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4444

Abstract

Microwave treatment can reduce the time of selected syntheses, for instance of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), from several hours to a few minutes. We propose a microfluidic structure for enhancing the rate of chemical reactions using microwave energy. This reactor is designed to control microwave energy with much higher accuracy than in standard devices. Thanks to this, the influence of microwave irradiation on the rate of chemical reactions can be investigated. The reactor consists of a transmission line surrounded by ground metallization. In order to deliver microwave energy to the fluid under test efficiently, matching networks are used and optimized by means of numerical methods. The monolithic device is fabricated in the low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) technology. This material exhibits excellent microwave performance and is resistant to many chemical substances as well as high temperatures. Fabrication of the devices is described in detail. Measurements of microwave parameters are performed and differences between simulation and experiment results are discussed. Finally, the usefulness of the proposed device is proved in exemplary synthesis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Microfluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Analysis)

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Review

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27 pages, 7653 KiB

Open AccessReview

Fab on a Package: LTCC Microfluidic Devices Applied to Chemical Process Miniaturization

by Houari Cobas Gomez, Roberta Mansini Cardoso, Juliana De Novais Schianti, Adriano Marim de Oliveira and Mario Ricardo Gongora-Rubio

Micromachines 2018, 9(6), 285; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9060285 - 05 Jun 2018

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5180

Abstract

Microfluidics has brought diverse advantages to chemical processes, allowing higher control of reactions and economy of reagents and energy. Low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) have additional advantages as material for fabrication of microfluidic devices, such as high compatibility with chemical reagents with typical average surface roughness of 0.3154 μm, easy scaling, and microfabrication. The conjugation of LTCC technology with microfluidics allows the development of micrometric-sized channels and reactors exploiting the advantages of fast and controlled mixing and heat transfer processes, essential for the synthesis and surface functionalization of nanoparticles. Since the chemical process area is evolving toward miniaturization and continuous flow processing, we verify that microfluidic devices based on LTCC technology have a relevant role in implementing several chemical processes. The present work reviews various LTCC microfluidic devices, developed in our laboratory, applied to chemical process miniaturization, with different geometries to implement processes such as ionic gelation, emulsification, nanoprecipitation, solvent extraction, nanoparticle synthesis and functionalization, and emulsion-diffusion/solvent extraction process. All fabricated microfluidics structures can operate in a flow range of mL/min, indicating that LTCC technology provides a means to enhance micro- and nanoparticle production yield. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Microfluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Analysis)

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3906 KiB

Open AccessReview

Recent Progress toward Microfluidic Quality Control Testing of Radiopharmaceuticals

by Noel S. Ha, Saman Sadeghi and R. Michael Van Dam

Micromachines 2017, 8(11), 337; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi8110337 - 21 Nov 2017

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 9078

Abstract

Radiopharmaceuticals labeled with short-lived positron-emitting or gamma-emitting isotopes are injected into patients just prior to performing positron emission tomography (PET) or single photon emission tomography (SPECT) scans, respectively. These imaging modalities are widely used in clinical care, as well as in the development and evaluation of new therapies in clinical research. Prior to injection, these radiopharmaceuticals (tracers) must undergo quality control (QC) testing to ensure product purity, identity, and safety for human use. Quality tests can be broadly categorized as (i) pharmaceutical tests, needed to ensure molecular identity, physiological compatibility and that no microbiological, pyrogenic, chemical, or particulate contamination is present in the final preparation; and (ii) radioactive tests, needed to ensure proper dosing and that there are no radiochemical and radionuclidic impurities that could interfere with the biodistribution or imaging. Performing the required QC tests is cumbersome and time-consuming, and requires an array of expensive analytical chemistry equipment and significant dedicated lab space. Calibrations, day of use tests, and documentation create an additional burden. Furthermore, in contrast to ordinary pharmaceuticals, each batch of short-lived radiopharmaceuticals must be manufactured and tested within a short period of time to avoid significant losses due to radioactive decay. To meet these challenges, several efforts are underway to develop integrated QC testing instruments that automatically perform and document all of the required tests. More recently, microfluidic quality control systems have been gaining increasing attention due to vastly reduced sample and reagent consumption, shorter analysis times, higher detection sensitivity, increased multiplexing, and reduced instrumentation size. In this review, we describe each of the required QC tests and conventional testing methods, followed by a discussion of efforts to directly miniaturize the test or examples in the literature that could be implemented for miniaturized QC testing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Microfluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Analysis)

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5484 KiB

Open AccessReview

Cell Migration Research Based on Organ-on-Chip-Related Approaches

by Xiaoou Ren, David Levin and Francis Lin

Micromachines 2017, 8(11), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi8110324 - 31 Oct 2017

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7761

Abstract

Microfluidic devices have been widely used for cell migration research over the last two decades, owing to their attractive features in cellular microenvironment control and quantitative single-cell migration analysis. However, the majority of the microfluidic cell migration studies have focused on single cell types and have configured microenvironments that are greatly simplified compared with the in-vivo conditions they aspire to model. In addition, although cell migration is considered an important target for disease diagnosis and therapeutics, very few microfluidic cell migration studies involved clinical samples from patients. Therefore, more sophisticated microfluidic systems are required to model the complex in-vivo microenvironment at the tissue or organ level for cell migration studies and to explore cell migration-related clinical applications. Research in this direction that employs organ-on-chip-related approaches for cell migration analysis has been increasingly reported in recent years. In this paper, we briefly introduce the general background of cell migration and organ-on-chip research, followed by a detailed review of specific cell migration studies using organ-on-chip-related approaches, and conclude by discussing our perspectives of the challenges, opportunities and future directions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Microfluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Analysis)

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