Microfluidic
microsystems are often designed to analyze samples
of small volumes of fluids; however, some applications require the
analysis of larger volumes. The ideal miniaturized microfluidic analytical
device should be autonomous and capable of integrating all the required
functions within a single fluidic network. While a number of self-powered
microfluidic network designs are available, the autonomous manipulation
of large sample volumes in microsystems is still a challenge. We have
developed a universal self-powered microfluidic architecture by combining
polymeric micropumps and plastic microfluidic cartridges, which may
be adapted to a large range of volumes of fluids. Our polymeric micropumps
were able to trigger flow rates from 0.25 to 20 μL·min–1 during more than 90 min, moving over 800 μL
of the fluid. A number of fluidic operations were demonstrated, including
mixing, aliquoting, waste storage, and autodraining of the microfluidic
channels. Finally, a self-powered cartridge for the separation of
plasma from whole blood was successfully validated, demonstrating
that this constitutes a universal scheme to process a wide range of
fluid volumes, which is an unprecedented fact in self-powered microfluidics.
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