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Generation of tunable and pulsatile concentration gradients via microfluidic network

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Abstract

We demonstrate a compact Polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic chip which can quickly generate ten different chemical concentrations simultaneously. The concentration magnitude of each branch can be flexibly regulated based on the flow rate ratios of the two injecting streams. The temporal/pulsatile concentration gradients are achieved by integrating on-chip pneumatic actuated valves controlled by the external signals. The temporal concentration gradients can also be tuned precisely by varying applied frequency and duty cycle of the trigger signal. It is believed that such microdevice will be potentially used for some application areas of producing stable chemical gradients as well as allowing fast, pulsatile gradient transformation in seconds.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. Andrew W. O. Poon’s research group, of Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering in HKUST, for their assistance in COMSOL Multiphysics simulations. This publication is based on work partially supported by Award No. SA-C0040/UK-C0016, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Hong Kong RGC Grants HKUST 604710 and 605411, and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11290165). The work is also partially supported by the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Program at HKUST.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nano Science and Technology Program and KAUST-HKUST Micro/Nanofluidic Joint Laboratory, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Bingpu Zhou, Cong Wang, Yeungyeung Chau, Xiping Zeng & Weijia Wen

  2. Imaging and Characterization Core Lab and Division of Physical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Wei Xu & Xi-Xiang Zhang

  3. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Rong Shen

  4. Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Weijia Wen

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  1. Bingpu Zhou
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  2. Wei Xu
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  3. Cong Wang
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  4. Yeungyeung Chau
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  7. Rong Shen
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Correspondence to Weijia Wen.

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Zhou, B., Xu, W., Wang, C. et al. Generation of tunable and pulsatile concentration gradients via microfluidic network. Microfluid Nanofluid 18, 175–184 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1432-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1432-9

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