Microfluidic Systems for Chemical Kinetics that Rely on Chaotic Mixing in Droplets

This paper reviews work on a microfluidic system that relies on chaotic advection to rapidly mix multiple reagents isolated in droplets (plugs). Using a combination of turns and straight sections, winding microfluidic channels create unsteady fluid flows that rapidly mix the multiple reagents contained within plugs. The scaling of mixing for a range of channel widths, flow velocities and diffusion coefficients has been investigated. Due to rapid mixing, low sample consumption and transport of reagents with no dispersion, the system is particularly appropriate for chemical kinetics and biochemical assays. The mixing occurs by chaotic advection and is rapid (sub-millisecond), allowing for an accurate description of fast reaction kinetics. In addition, mixing has been characterized and explicitly incorporated into the kinetic model.