Gravity-driven flow control in a fully integrated microfluidic cartridge for molecular point-of-care testing

Molecular point-of-care testing (POCT) system is crucial for the timely prevention and control of infectious diseases. We recently proposed a gravity-driven microfluidic cartridge for molecular POCT detection, without the need for external sources or actuators, demonstrating the advantages in terms of the reduced cartridge size and low development costs. How to achieve precise control of liquid flow behavior is challenging for the gravity-driven cartridge. In this work, we explored the underlying mechanism of flow control in the cartridge and offered optimized solutions for our cartridge design to achieve precise control of dynamic flow rates and enhance pumping efficiency significantly. Through the computational fluid dynamics simulations, we demonstrated that adopting an asymptotic contraction chamber geometry design and a closed-loop air flow channel design with the cartridge inlet can facilitate stable laminar flow of the liquid in our microfluidic cartridge, enabling precise control of flow velocity. We further optimized the microchannel diameter and the contact angle of the liquid with the microchannel wall. The effectiveness of the optimized cartridge for POCT detection was well validated by the accurate detection of the human papillomavirus type 16 virus in the 120 clinical swab samples.