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AssigneeUniversity of Washington
InventorsMatthew S. Munson, Catherine R. Cabrera, Paul Yager, Anson Hatch, Andrew Kamholz
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This invention provides methods for using liquid junction potentials to control the transport of charged particles in fluid streams that are in laminar flow within microfluidic channels. Applications of the methods of this invention include sample preconditioning (removal of interfering substances), electrophoretic separation (fractionation) of charged particles, enhanced or delayed mixing of charged particles across a fluid interface relative to diffusion only, focusing charged particles in a fluid stream in one or two dimensions, and concentration of charged reactants at a fluid interface.
A method for controlling the transport of a charged particle in a first fluid stream with respect to an interface formed by direct contact between said first fluid stream and a second fluid stream in adjacent laminar flow therewith in a microfluidic channel, the method comprising creating a liquid junction potential at said interface by providing ions in at least one of said fluids of charge, concentration, mobility, and/or charge magnitude selected to accelerate or decelerate movement of said charged particle with respect to said interface.
A method of making a microfluidic device for establishing a liquid junction potential, said method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.