Coaxial microreactor for particle synthesis
| DWPI Title: Mixer e.g. micro reactor used for flow of fluid e.g. liquid, has core flow channel and sheath flow channels from which fluid is directed to proceed to outlet channel intersecting fluidic junction after merging in fluidic junction |
| Abstract: A coaxial fluid flow microreactor system disposed on a microfluidic chip utilizing laminar flow for synthesizing particles from solution. Flow geometries produced by the mixing system make use of hydrodynamic focusing to confine a core flow to a small axially-symmetric, centrally positioned and spatially well-defined portion of a flow channel cross-section to provide highly uniform diffusional mixing between a reactant core and sheath flow streams. The microreactor is fabricated in such a way that a substantially planar two-dimensional arrangement of microfluidic channels will produce a three-dimensional core/sheath flow geometry. The microreactor system can comprise one or more coaxial mixing stages that can be arranged singly, in series, in parallel or nested concentrically in parallel. |
| Use: Mixer such as micro reactor used for flow of fluid such as liquid (all claimed), gas, aqueous and non-aqueous liquid, and dissolved soluble constituent, mixture, emulsion, suspensions and biological and bodily fluid such as cytoplasm, saliva, mucus, blood, plasma, urine, bile, milk, lymph, cerebrospinal fluid, for use on microfluidic chip used in particle synthesis microreactor application, flow cytometry and chemical analysis applications. |
| Advantage: Since the core channel of three-channel mixer is undercut by the sheath channels on either side, the fluid from both sheath channels can be allowed to merge above, below, and upstream of the core flow orifice. Thus the three-dimensional, coaxial, focused flow can be facilitated. Therefore the on-chip reactor functionality and performance can be improved. The highly symmetrical, consistent, and uniform interface between reacting core/sheath species can be enabled, so that the particles with homogeneous properties and very narrow size distributions can be produced effectively. The clogging can be minimized and scale-up of particle production can be enabled. |
| Novelty: The mixer has sheath flow channels (120) that are provided with ends respectively defining inlets and outlets. The sheath flow channels are arranged on opposite sides of core flow channel (110) and separated from core flow channel by flanking walls (200). A fluidic junction is defined by region having the intersection of outlets of the sheath flow channels and core flow channel. The fluid from the core flow channel and sheath flow channels is directed to proceed to outlet channel or channels intersecting the fluidic junction after merging in the fluidic junction. |
| Filed: 9/29/2010 |
| Application Number: US2010893915A |
| Tech ID: SD 11064.2 |
| This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention. |
| Data from Derwent World Patents Index, provided by Clarivate All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Clarivate content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Clarivate. Clarivate and its logo, as well as all other trademarks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners and used under license. |