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Design optimization of capillary-driven micromixer with square-wave microchannel for blood plasma mixing

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Abstract

A numerical and experimental investigation is performed into the flow characteristics and mixing performance of three microfluidic polydimethylsiloxane blood plasma mixing devices incorporating square-wave, curved and zigzag microchannels, respectively. For each device, the plasma is introduced into the microfluidic channel under the effects of capillary action alone. Of the three devices, that with the square-wave microchannel is found to yield the best mixing performance, and is therefore selected for design optimization. Four microfluidic micromixers incorporating square-wave microchannels with different widths in the x- and y-directions are fabricated using conventional photolithography techniques. The mixing performance of the four microchannels is investigated both numerically and experimentally. The results show that given an appropriate specification of the microchannel geometry, a mixing efficiency of approximately 76 % can be obtained within 4 s. The practical feasibility of the micromixer is demonstrated by performing prothrombin time (PT) tests using a total liquid volume of 4.0 μL (2.0 μL of plasma and 2.0 μL of PT reagent). It is shown that the mean time required to complete the entire PT test (including loading, mixing and coagulation) is less than 30 s.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under Grant No. MOST 104-2221-E-150-056. The access to fabrication equipment provided by the Common Lab for Micro/Nano Science and Technology of National Formosa University is greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Automation Engineering, National Formosa University, Yunlin, 632, Taiwan

    Ju-Nan Kuo, Hong-Song Liao & Xiang-Ming Li

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  1. Ju-Nan Kuo
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  2. Hong-Song Liao
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  3. Xiang-Ming Li
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Correspondence to Ju-Nan Kuo.

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Kuo, JN., Liao, HS. & Li, XM. Design optimization of capillary-driven micromixer with square-wave microchannel for blood plasma mixing. Microsyst Technol 23, 721–730 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-015-2722-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-015-2722-1

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