Department Lecture Series
Thursday February 21, 9:45 am, Smith 331

Integrated Micro- and Nanofluidic Devices for Separations and Analysis

Interest in microfluidic-based applications has increased over the past decade primarily because device miniaturization has led to a number of advantages, which include executing fast, efficient, high throughput assays, integrating multiple sample processing steps, and fabricating highly parallel device architectures. However, devices continue to shrink in dimension and are approaching the nanometer length scale, and we are studying which lessons from the microscale extrapolate to the nanoscale. To develop functional nanofluidic systems, we are evaluating and comparing nanochannel and nanopore devices. In both formats, the nanoscale conduits are integrated with microfluidic channels to enhance coupling of fluids, applied potentials, and hydrostatic flows. Aspects of microfluidic operation, such as valving, transfer directly to operation of these nanoscale conduits, whereas generation of localized, high electric field strengths permit unique separation opportunities. These nanofluidic examples and others will be discussed.