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Digital acoustofluidics enables contactless and programmable liquid handling.
Steven Peiran Zhang1, James Lata2, Chuyi Chen1
1Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
Nature Communications
|July 28, 2018
Summary
Digital acoustofluidics enables contactless droplet manipulation for automated reactions. This contamination-free technology allows for re-programmable fluidic paths and complex reaction matrices on a single device.
Area of Science:
- Fluidics
- Biotechnology
- Acoustics
Background:
- Automated reactions in compact fluid processors are a long-standing scientific goal.
- Current fluidic technologies like microfluidic chips suffer from surface contamination, limiting re-programmability and processing speed.
- This contamination hinders the creation of complex reaction test matrices.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a novel contactless droplet transport and processing technique.
- To overcome the limitations of existing fluidic handling technologies.
- To enable efficient and scalable automated reactions.
Main Methods:
- Developed digital acoustofluidics, a contactless technique for droplet manipulation.
- Utilized acoustic-streaming-induced hydrodynamic traps for droplet transport.
- Manipulated droplets with volumes ranging from 1 nL to 100 µL on any planar axis.
Main Results:
- Achieved contamination-free droplet processing (less than 10-10% diffusion).
- Demonstrated high biocompatibility with 99.2% cell viability.
- Enabled reactions on overlapping, non-contaminated fluidic paths.
- Showcased the ability to scale to massive interaction matrices within a single device.
Conclusions:
- Digital acoustofluidics offers a contamination-free and re-programmable solution for fluidic handling.
- This technology significantly enhances processing speed and the complexity of reaction test matrices.
- It paves the way for advanced automated reactions in compact, scalable devices.
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