Passive Capillary Flow of Aqueous Microparticle Suspensions in the Sudden Expansion PMMA Microchannels

Abstract

Abstract

Author has fabricated a set of sudden expansions micro channels in the polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) microfluidic devices by the maskless lithography, hot embossing lithography, drilling, air dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma processing, direct bonding technique and chip separation technique. The surface-driven capillary flow of dyed water and three individual aqueous microparticle suspensions are studied with respect to the effects of channel aspect ratio, effective viscosity and surface wettability. The number densities of suspended polystyrene microparticles in the three individually prepared suspensions are 1×10⁵ particles mL^-1, 1×10⁶ particles mL^-1 and 1×10⁷ particles mL^-1. Dyed water is used as control liquid. This study will be helpful to control the aqueous suspensions inside any microfluidic lab-on-a-chip system.

Keywords: PMMA, Sudden expansion, Suspension, Capillary flow

Cite this Article

Subhadeep Mukhopadhyay. Passive Capillary Flow of Aqueous Microparticle Suspensions in the Sudden Expansion PMMA Microchannels. Trends in Opto-Electro & Optical Communications. 2017; 7(1): 13–17p.