Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.

The maker movement has shown how off-the-shelf devices can be combined to perform operations that, until recently, required expensive specialized equipment. Applying this philosophy to microfluidic devices can play a fundamental role in disseminating these technologies outside specialist labs and in...

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Main Authors: Caroline Frot, Nicolas Taccoen, Charles N Baroud
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161490&type=printable
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author Caroline Frot
Nicolas Taccoen
Charles N Baroud
author_facet Caroline Frot
Nicolas Taccoen
Charles N Baroud
author_sort Caroline Frot
collection DOAJ
description The maker movement has shown how off-the-shelf devices can be combined to perform operations that, until recently, required expensive specialized equipment. Applying this philosophy to microfluidic devices can play a fundamental role in disseminating these technologies outside specialist labs and into industrial use. Here we show how nanoliter droplets can be manipulated using a commercial DVD writer, interfaced with an Arduino electronic controller. We couple the optical setup with a droplet generation and manipulation device based on the "confinement gradients" approach. This device uses regions of different depths to generate and transport the droplets, which further simplifies the operation and reduces the need for precise flow control. The use of robust consumer electronics, combined with open source hardware, leads to a great reduction in the price of the device, as well as its footprint, without reducing its performance compared with the laboratory setup.
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language English
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publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
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spelling doaj-art-3dfb6b519aa5472f968ec34af62e18a12025-08-20T02:31:59ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01118e016149010.1371/journal.pone.0161490Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.Caroline FrotNicolas TaccoenCharles N BaroudThe maker movement has shown how off-the-shelf devices can be combined to perform operations that, until recently, required expensive specialized equipment. Applying this philosophy to microfluidic devices can play a fundamental role in disseminating these technologies outside specialist labs and into industrial use. Here we show how nanoliter droplets can be manipulated using a commercial DVD writer, interfaced with an Arduino electronic controller. We couple the optical setup with a droplet generation and manipulation device based on the "confinement gradients" approach. This device uses regions of different depths to generate and transport the droplets, which further simplifies the operation and reduces the need for precise flow control. The use of robust consumer electronics, combined with open source hardware, leads to a great reduction in the price of the device, as well as its footprint, without reducing its performance compared with the laboratory setup.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161490&type=printable
spellingShingle Caroline Frot
Nicolas Taccoen
Charles N Baroud
Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.
PLoS ONE
title Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.
title_full Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.
title_fullStr Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.
title_full_unstemmed Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.
title_short Frugal Droplet Microfluidics Using Consumer Opto-Electronics.
title_sort frugal droplet microfluidics using consumer opto electronics
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161490&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT carolinefrot frugaldropletmicrofluidicsusingconsumeroptoelectronics
AT nicolastaccoen frugaldropletmicrofluidicsusingconsumeroptoelectronics
AT charlesnbaroud frugaldropletmicrofluidicsusingconsumeroptoelectronics