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Controlled microfluidic interfaces

Nature volume 437, pages 648–655 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The microfabrication technologies of the semiconductor industry have made it possible to integrate increasingly complex electronic and mechanical functions, providing us with ever smaller, cheaper and smarter sensors and devices. These technologies have also spawned microfluidics systems for containing and controlling fluid at the micrometre scale, where the increasing importance of viscosity and surface tension profoundly affects fluid behaviour. It is this confluence of available microscale engineering and scale-dependence of fluid behaviour that has revolutionized our ability to precisely control fluid/fluid interfaces for use in fields ranging from materials processing and analytical chemistry to biology and medicine.

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Figure 1: Microfluidic interfaces provide unique functionality.
Figure 2: Droplets as containers.
Figure 3: Pinned interfaces.
Figure 4: Interfacial reactions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Moorthy and D. Kim for help in preparing the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1550 Engineering Drive, Rm 2142 ECB, Madison, WI 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Javier Atencia & David J. Beebe

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Atencia, J., Beebe, D. Controlled microfluidic interfaces. Nature 437, 648–655 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04163

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