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Electric field driven addressing of ATPS droplets in microfluidic chips

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Abstract

The possibility of controlled droplet motion (droplet addressing) mediated by DC electric field in aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) is here reported for the first time. Three ATPS of polyethylene glycol (PEG)/salt type, namely PEG/phosphate, PEG/sulphate, and PEG/carbonate, were selected for this study. We observed fast motion of salty droplets dispersed in PEG continuous phase induced by electric field of relative low strength. Hence, three fluidic systems with separated electrode chambers for the evaluation of electrophoretic mobilities and for addressing experiments were fabricated. Electrophoretic mobilities of salty droplets always exceeded the value of \(1\times 10^{-7}\, \hbox {m}^2\hbox {V}^{-1}\hbox {s}^{-1}\), which is about by one magnitude higher value than those typically measured in water–oil droplet systems. The electrophoretic mobilities in systems with free surface are the same or even smaller than in closed microfluidic structures, which is accounted mainly to the fact that a significant part of salty droplets is exposed to air and does not contribute to droplet forcing. Series of addressing and merging experiments in a microfluidic chip shows that DC electric field can be used as a powerful tool for smart manipulation of droplets in microfluidic systems with PEG/salt ATPS.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Czech Science Foundation (grant no. 14-01781S) and Ministry of Education Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic: CENTEM PLUS (LO1402) for financial support of this work.

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  1. Thomas Stragier

    Present address: École nationale supérieure des ingénieurs en arts chimiques et technologiques, 4 Allée Emile Monso, 31030, Toulouse, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Chemistry and Technology, Technicka 5, 166 28, Praha 6, Prague, Czech Republic

    Lucie Vobecká, Elvira Khafizova, Thomas Stragier, Zdeněk Slouka & Michal Přibyl

  2. New Technologies - Research Centre, University of West Bohemia, Univerzitní 8, 306 14, Plzeň, Czech Republic

    Zdeněk Slouka & Michal Přibyl

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  1. Lucie Vobecká
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Correspondence to Michal Přibyl.

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Vobecká, L., Khafizova, E., Stragier, T. et al. Electric field driven addressing of ATPS droplets in microfluidic chips. Microfluid Nanofluid 21, 51 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-017-1891-x

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