Surfactant additives for digital microfluidic devices for high protein content droplets transport

A system for processing droplets of a fluid containing proteins, the system comprising:

• an array of digital microfluidic electrodes;
• and
• a surfactant disposable to the array of digital microfluidic electrodes,
• wherein the surfactant, when disposed to the array, forms a shielding layer at an interface of surfaces of the digital microfluidic electrodes and droplets of the fluid to resist the adsorption of proteins to the digital microfluidic electrodes,
• wherein a molecular arrangement of the proteins is unchanged by a presence of the surfactant,
• wherein a molar ratio of the surfactant and the proteins is below 1:1,
• wherein the system is configured to introduce the droplets of the fluid to the surfactant, and
• wherein the surfactant has a formula as follows:
• wherein:
• x is an integer in a range from 4 to 32, and y is an integer in a range from 2 to 36,
• m is an integer of 4 or 6
• n is an integer of at least 2,
• X, Y and Z are any one of the following groups:
• and
• W is any one of