Print Email Facebook Twitter Scalable microfluidic droplet on-demand generator for non-steady operation of droplet-based assays Title Scalable microfluidic droplet on-demand generator for non-steady operation of droplet-based assays Author Totlani, K. (TU Delft ChemE/Product and Process Engineering) Hurkmans, Jan Willem (Student TU Delft) van Gulik, W.M. (TU Delft OLD BT/Cell Systems Engineering) Kreutzer, M.T. (TU Delft ChemE/Afdelingsbureau) van Steijn, V. (TU Delft ChemE/Product and Process Engineering) Date 2020 Abstract We developed a microfluidic droplet on-demand (DoD) generator that enables the production of droplets with a volume solely governed by the geometry of the generator for a range of operating conditions. The prime reason to develop this novel type of DoD generator is that its robustness in operation enables scale out and operation under non-steady conditions, which are both essential features for the further advancement of droplet-based assays. We first detail the working principle of the DoD generator and study the sensitivity of the volume of the generated droplets with respect to the used fluids and control parameters. We next compare the performance of our DoD generator when scaled out to 8 parallel generators to the performance of a conventional DoD generator in which the droplet volume is not geometry-controlled, showing its superior performance. Further scale out to 64 parallel DoD generators shows that all generators produce droplets with a volume between 91% and 105% of the predesigned volume. We conclude the paper by presenting a simple droplet-based assay in which the DoD generator enables sequential supply of reagent droplets to a droplet stored in the device, illustrating its potential to be used in droplet-based assays for biochemical studies under non-steady operation conditions. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2748aed6-fb73-4339-9651-292c08ea3a08 DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/c9lc01103j ISSN 1473-0197 Source Lab On a Chip: microfluidic and nanotechnologies for chemistry, biology, and bioengineering, 20 (8), 1398-1409 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2020 K. Totlani, Jan Willem Hurkmans, W.M. van Gulik, M.T. Kreutzer, V. van Steijn Files PDF c9lc01103j.pdf 6 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:2748aed6-fb73-4339-9651-292c08ea3a08/datastream/OBJ/view