Review of membranes in microfluidics

Abstract

This review reports the progress on the recent development of membranes in microfluidics. First of all, the definition and basic concepts of membranes are given. Second, the manufacturing methods of membranes in microfluidics are illustrated and discussed. And lastly, the applications of membranes in microfluidics that are the focus of this work are discussed including cells, proteins, microreactors, gas detection, drug screening, electrokinetical fluids, pump and valve and fluid transport control, chemical reagents detection and so on. A variety of microfluidic devices designed containing membranes are expounded and analyzed. This paper will provide a valuable reference to designers who research membranes and microfluidics for various applications. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry

Potential of sodium alginate/titanium oxide biomembrane nanocomposite in DMFC application

“…In addition, high efficiency in the process of energy conversion as well as non-combustion processes have reduced greenhouse gas emissions causing DMFCs to be interested in addressing environmental issues. [7][8][9][10] Nafion membranes are currently used because of their advantages over other membranes like excellent conductivity of proton, noble chemical, and physical stability. [2][3][4][5][6] The membrane electrolyte assemble is the most important part of the DMFC and consists of electrodes (anodes and cathodes) that function as a centre for reactions and membranes that separate the anode and cathode; the membranes also serve as a barrier to the methanol trajectory as well as a pathway for protons, which are very important conductive agents.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6] The membrane electrolyte assemble is the most important part of the DMFC and consists of electrodes (anodes and cathodes) that function as a centre for reactions and membranes that separate the anode and cathode; the membranes also serve as a barrier to the methanol trajectory as well as a pathway for protons, which are very important conductive agents. [7][8][9][10] Nafion membranes are currently used because of their advantages over other membranes like excellent conductivity of proton, noble chemical, and physical stability. [11][12][13] Unfortunately, there are major disadvantages that prevent the continued commercialization of Nafion, which are expensive cost production and high crossover of methanol problems, which result in the loss of fuel and potential mixture on the cathode side, thereby reducing DMFC's overall performance.…”

Design Optimization for a Microfluidic Crossflow Filtration System Incorporating a Micromixer

“…With the development of microfabrication technologies in the last decade, microfluidic membrane filtration combining microfluidics and membrane technologies has become a promising research area [30][31][32]. Many different fabrication methods integrating membranes into a microfluidic device have been proposed, e.g., direct incorporation of membranes in microchannels and incorporation of membranes during lithography processes.…”

“…Many different fabrication methods integrating membranes into a microfluidic device have been proposed, e.g., direct incorporation of membranes in microchannels and incorporation of membranes during lithography processes. As for recently developed novel fabrication methods and their applications in microfluidics, we refer to a review paper by Chen and Shen [32]. Since typical flows in microfluidic devices belong to the laminar flow regime, mixing near the membrane surface is not significant and the local concentration of foulants near the membrane surface increases rapidly [32].…”

Thermally stable and uniform DNA amplification with picosecond laser ablated graphene rapid thermal cycling device

“…Several million copies of DNA can be generated from a single molecule through only few cycles of PCR. DNA amplification is performed using thermal cycling, with a high degree of control of stable and uniform temperature distribution being attributed to array structures (Bigham et al, 2017;Seo et al, 2018), microchannel heat exchangers (Riera et al, 2013), membrane-based microfluidics (Chen and Shen, 2017), and doped hybrid materials (Seo et al, 2016). In principle, this method can be applied to other taxonomic groups of pathogens (e.g., families, genus, species of viruses, bacteria, and fungi) by designing a broad-range PCR assay (Evertsson et al, 2000).…”