Long-term storage of droplets on a chip by Parylene AF4 coating of channels

Akhtar, Mahmuda; Driesche, Sander van den; Bödecker, André; Vellekoop, Michael J.

doi:10.1016/j.snb.2017.08.032

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Since the tubing and off‐chip reservoirs were made of gas‐tight materials that should effectively prevent diffusion into the gas phase, and since the solubility of water in the hydrofluoroether (HFE) 7500 oil is about 45 ppm (Datasheet Fluoridrop, Dolomite Microfluidics), diffusion of water molecules into the organic phase is a decisive factor for the observed shrinkage of the droplets . However, quantitative estimations suggest that further processes, such as aqueous surfactant adsorbates at the droplet boundaries and solid surfaces, might play an important role as well.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The smaller the volume of the organic phase around the water droplets, the faster this volume is saturated and the lesser the droplets shrink . Small droplets shrink more than larger droplets due to their higher surface‐to‐volume ratio . The droplets in the PTFE tube initially have a smaller volume compared to the other two storage variants and therefore show greater shrinkage.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of Storage Methods for Microfluidically Produced Water‐in‐Oil Droplets

et al. 2019

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Microfluidically produced water‐in‐oil droplets are an important platform for biochemical research. To investigate the structural integrity of droplets during transfer and storage processes, different methods were compared. Storage as isolated droplets inside plastic tubing or a designed microfluidic chamber led to moderate decreases in droplet volume but only slight changes in monodispersity, whereas bulk storage in an Eppendorf cup led to the complete loss of monodispersity. It is further demonstrated that on‐chip storage of the droplets in a fluidic microcavity array avoids coalescence and enables a reduction in volume with the concurrent increase in the concentration of entrapped proteins, which is relevant for applications in life science.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Storage Methods for Microfluidically Produced Water‐in‐Oil Droplets

et al. 2019

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“…However, the 3D-printed microfluidic chip holders contain inner channel structures with regions inaccessible to UV light. When measurements are conducted with sensitive biological cells, an efficient and attractive method to prevent such cytotoxic effects is by coating the 3D-printed structures with parylene [ 47 ]. During the deposition process of parylene-C, reactive monomer diffuses into the 3D-printed channel, coating the inner structure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printing Solutions for Microfluidic Chip-To-World Connections

et al. 2018

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The connection of microfluidic devices to the outer world by tubes and wires is an underestimated issue. We present methods based on 3D printing to realize microfluidic chip holders with reliable fluidic and electric connections. The chip holders are constructed by microstereolithography, an additive manufacturing technique with sub-millimeter resolution. The fluidic sealing between the chip and holder is achieved by placing O-rings, partly integrated into the 3D-printed structure. The electric connection of bonding pads located on microfluidic chips is realized by spring-probes fitted within the printed holder. Because there is no gluing or wire bonding necessary, it is easy to change the chip in the measurement setup. The spring probes and O-rings are aligned automatically because of their fixed position within the holder. In the case of bioanalysis applications such as cells, a limitation of 3D-printed objects is the leakage of cytotoxic residues from the printing material, cured resin. This was solved by coating the 3D-printed structures with parylene-C. The combination of silicon/glass microfluidic chips fabricated with highly-reliable clean-room technology and 3D-printed chip holders for the chip-to-world connection is a promising solution for applications where biocompatibility, optical transparency and accurate sample handling must be assured. 3D printing technology for such applications will eventually arise, enabling the fabrication of complete microfluidic devices.

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“…DIBs are stable over days, and the droplets shrink very slowly within days. This is a strong improvement for long-term studies compared to DIBs created in PDMS devices, where droplets must be stabilized by coating of the PDMS walls or the addition of on-chip water reservoirs to prevent diffusion of the aqueous droplet content into the PDMS 4 , 45 , 46 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidic platform enables tailored translocation and reaction cascades in nanoliter droplet networks

et al. 2020

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In the field of bottom-up synthetic biology, lipid membranes are the scaffold to create minimal cells and mimic reactions and processes at or across the membrane. In this context, we employ here a versatile microfluidic platform that enables precise positioning of nanoliter droplets with user-specified lipid compositions and in a defined pattern. Adjacent droplets make contact and form a droplet interface bilayer to simulate cellular membranes. Translocation of molecules across membranes are tailored by the addition of alpha-hemolysin to selected droplets. Moreover, we developed a protocol to analyze the translocation of non-fluorescent molecules between droplets with mass spectrometry. Our method is capable of automated formation of one- and two-dimensional droplet networks, which we demonstrated by connecting droplets containing different compound and enzyme solutions to perform translocation experiments and a multistep enzymatic cascade reaction across the droplet network. Our platform opens doors for creating complex artificial systems for bottom-up synthetic biology.

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Long-term storage of droplets on a chip by Parylene AF4 coating of channels

Cited by 21 publications

References 38 publications

Comparison of Storage Methods for Microfluidically Produced Water‐in‐Oil Droplets

Comparison of Storage Methods for Microfluidically Produced Water‐in‐Oil Droplets

3D Printing Solutions for Microfluidic Chip-To-World Connections

Microfluidic platform enables tailored translocation and reaction cascades in nanoliter droplet networks

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