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Updated: May 26, 2026

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Taking Advantage of Reduced Droplet-surface Interaction to Optimize Transport of Bioanalytes in Digital Microfluidics
Published on: November 10, 2014
Single ether group in a glycol-based ultra-thin layer prevents surface fouling from undiluted serum
Sonia Sheikh1, David Yi Yang, Christophe Blaszykowski
1Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3H6.
Abstract:
Through systematic structural modification, it is shown that the internal, single oxygen atom of simple monoethylene glycol-based organic films is essential for radically altering the fouling behaviour of quartz against undiluted serum, as characterized by the electromagnetic piezoelectric acoustic sensor. The synergy is strongest with distal hydroxyls.

