Design, Implementation, Simulation, and Visualization of a Highly Efficient RIM Microfluidic Mixer for Rapid Freeze-Quench of Biological Samples
Rapid freeze-quench (RFQ) trapping of short-lived reaction intermediates for spectroscopic study plays an important role in the characterization of biological reactions. Recently, there has been considerable effort to achieve sub-millisecond reaction deadtimes. We present here a new, robust, high-velocity microfluidic mixer that enables such rapid freeze-quenching. It is a based on the mixing method of two impinging jets commonly used in reaction injection molding of plastics. This method achieves efficient mixing by inducing chaotic flow at relatively low Reynolds numbers (Re = 140). We present the first mathematical simulation and microscopic visualization of mixing in such RFQ micromixers, the results of which show that the impinging solutions efficiently mix within the mixing chamber. These tests, along with a practical demonstration in an RFQ setup that involves copper wheels, show that this new mixer can in practice provide reaction deadtimes as low as 100 µs.
- Research Organization:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0000989
- OSTI ID:
- 1384518
- Journal Information:
- Applied Magnetic Resonance, Vol. 40, Issue 4; Related Information: CBES partners with Northwestern University (lead); Harvard University; New York University; Pennsylvania State University; University of Michigan; University of Pittsburgh; ISSN 0937-9347
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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