Polymer-based acoustic streaming for improving mixing and reaction times in microfluidic applications

Abstract

This paper reports on a polymer-based piezoelectric transducer used in microfluidic structures for generating acoustic waves, and consequently, the acoustic streaming phenomenon, that will improve the mixing of fluids. The piezoelectric transducer is based on a poly(vinylidene fluoride- trifluoroethylene), P(VDF-TrFE), copolymer with conductive transparent electrodes of aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO). The efficiency of the optimized piezoelectric P(VDF-TrFE) transducer on mixing fluids was studied using two diagnostic kits for the quantification of uric acid and nitrite in blood. In both cases, acoustic streaming reduced the reaction time for the quantification of each biomolecule when compared to the reaction time achieved only by diffusion, with gains of 23% and of 32% for the uric acid and nitrite, respectively. These results contribute to increase the efficiency in fluid mixing and therefore to improve the overall performance of miniaturized analysis systems

An Enhanced Electroosmotic Micromixer with an Efficient Asymmetric Lateral Structure

“…Many ingenious micromixers developed in recent years can be divided into two broad categories: passive [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] and active types [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Active micromixers utilize externally-induced mixing, such as electric [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 19 ], magnetic [ 18 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], acoustic [ 25 ], and moving parts [ 26 ] upon the flow field. Passive micromixers do not require external energy, except for that used to drive the flows [ 5 , 27 , 28 ].…”

Transparent semi‐crystalline polymeric materials and their nanocomposites: A review

“…[36] The copolymerization with diester-diamide and diester-tetraamide segments such as polyether(ester amide)s (PEEAs) with poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) and monodisperse poly(hexamethylene terephthalamide) segments (PA-6,T) also results in transparent copolymers. [37,38] Some other copolymers such as poly(vinylidene fluoridetrifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] [39] and poly(N-methylmaleimide-alt-isobutene) [poly(MeMI-IB)] [40] lead to optically transparent products as well.…”

Studies on the transformation process of PVDF film from α to β phase by uniaxial stretch

“…Poly(vinylidene uoride)(PVDF) is the best piezoelectric polymer with excellent ferroelectric, piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties [1][2][3][4][5], and has potential applications for wearable electronics [6], self-powered electronic systems [7][8][9], energy storage [10], actuators [11][12][13][14][15][16], and so on [17][18][19][20]. PVDF has at least four various crystal forms: α, β, γ, δ [21,22], and the β-phase has the best ferroelectric, piezoelectric properties [23][24][25].…”