Toward Complete Miniaturisation of Flow Injection Analysis Systems: Microfluidic Enhancement of Chemiluminescent Detection

Irreversible Bonding of Polydimethylsiloxane-Lithium Niobate using Oxygen Plasma Modification for Surface Acoustic Wave based Microfluidic Application: Theory and Experiment

Acoustic microfluidic chips, fabricated by combining lithium niobate (LiNbO3) with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), practically find applications in biomedicine. However, high-strength direct bonding of LiNbO3 substrate with PDMS microchannel remains a challenge due to the large mismatching of thermal expansion coefficient at the interface and the lack of bonding theory. This paper elaborately reveals the bonding mechanisms of PDMS and LiNbO3, demonstrating an irreversible bonding method for PDMS-LiNbO3 heterostructures using oxygen plasma modification. An in-situ monitoring strategy by using resonant devices is proposed for oxygen plasma, including quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) covered with PDMS and surface acoustic wave (SAW) fabricated by LiNbO3. When oxygen plasma exposure occurs, surfaces are cleaned, oxygen ions are implanted, and hydroxyl groups (-OH) are formed. Upon interfaces bonding, the interface will form niobium-oxygen-silicon covalent bonds to realize an irreversible connection. A champion bonding strength is obtained of 1.1 MPa, and the PDMS-LiNbO3 acoustic microfluidic chip excels in leakage tests, withstanding pressures exceeding 60 psi, outperforming many previously reported devices. This work addresses the gap in PDMS-LiNbO3 bonding theory and advances its practical application in the acoustic microfluidic field.

Rapid acoustofluidic mixing by ultrasonic surface acoustic wave-induced acoustic streaming flow

Ultrasonic surface acoustic wave (SAW)-induced acoustic streaming flow (ASF) has been utilized for microfluidic flow control, patterning, and mixing. Most previous research employed cross-type SAW acousto-microfluidic mixers, in which the SAWs propagated perpendicular to the flow direction. In this configuration, the flow mixing was induced predominantly by the horizontal component of the acoustic force, which was usually much smaller than the vertical component, leading to energy inefficiency and limited controllability. Here, we propose a vertical-type ultrasonic SAW acousto-microfluidic mixer to achieve rapid flow mixing with improved efficiency and controllability. We conducted in-depth numerical and experimental investigations of the vertical-type SAW-induced ASF to elucidate the acousto-hydrodynamic phenomenon under varying conditions of total flow rate, acoustic wave amplitude, and fluid viscosity conditions. We conducted computational fluid dynamics simulations for numerical flow visualization and utilized micro-prism-embedded microchannels for experimental flow visualization for the vertical SAW-induced ASF. We found that the SAW-induced vortices served as a hydrodynamic barrier for the co-flow streams for controlled flow mixing in the proposed device. For proof-of-concept application, we performed chemical additive-free rapid red blood cell lysis and achieved rapid cell lysis with high lysis efficiency based on the physical interactions of the suspended cells with the SAW-induced acoustic vortical flows. We believe that the proposed vertical-type ultrasonic SAW-based mixer can be broadly utilized for various microfluidic applications that require rapid, controlled flow mixing.

Nanoscale plasma-activated aerosol generation for in situ surface pathogen disinfection

Plasma treatment constitutes an efficient method for chemical-free disinfection. A spray-based system for dispensing plasma-activated aerosols onto surfaces would facilitate disinfection of complex and/or hidden surfaces inaccessible to direct line-of-sight (for example, UV) methods. The complexity and size of current plasma generators (for example, plasma jet and cometary plasma systems)-which prohibit portable operation, together with the short plasma lifetimes, necessitate a miniaturized in situ technique in which a source can be simultaneously activated and administered on-demand onto surfaces. Here, we demonstrate this possibility by combining two nanoscale technologies for plasma and aerosol generation into an integrated device that is sufficiently small and lightweight. Plasma is generated on a carpet of zinc oxide nanorods comprising a nanoneedle ensemble, which when raised to a high electric potential, constitutes a massive point charge array with near-singular electric fields to effect atmospheric breakdown. The plasma is then used to activate water transported through an underlying capillary wick, that is subsequently aerosolized under MHz-order surface acoustic waves. We show that the system, besides being amenable to miniaturization and hence integration into a chipscale device, leads to a considerable improvement in plasma-activation over its macroscale cometary discharge predecessor, with up to 20% and 127% higher hydrogen peroxide and nitrite ion concentrations that are respectively generated in the plasma-activated aerosols. This, in turn, leads to a 67% reduction in the disinfection time to achieve 95% bacterial load reduction, therefore demonstrating the potential of the technology as an efficient portable platform for on-demand field-use surface disinfection.

Thermal Control Design and Packaging for Surface Acoustic Wave Devices in Acoustofluidics

This article presents a thermal control design method for a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device. We designed a heat-dissipation structure and packaging scheme to solve three key issues observed in SAW devices using anisotropic crystals as piezoelectric substrates in acoustofluidics (e.g., lithium niobate): SAW chip cracking caused by thermal stress, SAW chip cracking caused by mismatched thermal expansion coefficients of the packaging materials, and enhancement of the structural strength and stability of the SAW chip. This study establishes the physical model of the designed structure and the relationship between the steady-state working temperature and the physical properties of the material. By comparing these physical properties and numerical calculations, we identified nanosilver adhesive as the most effective bonding material between the SAW chip and the heat sink. In addition to designing and fabricating, we also evaluated our SAW devices experimentally. The results not only confirmed that the abovementioned three key problems were solved but also demonstrated the significant enhancement of the stability of the SAW device.

Acoustomicrofluidic Concentration and Signal Enhancement of Fluorescent Nanodiamond Sensors

Diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers constitute a promising class of quantum nanosensors owing to the unique magneto-optic properties associated with their spin states. The large surface area and photostability of diamond nanoparticles, together with their relatively low synthesis costs, make them a suitable platform for the detection of biologically relevant quantities such as paramagnetic ions and molecules in solution. Nevertheless, their sensing performance in solution is often hampered by poor signal-to-noise ratios and long acquisition times due to distribution inhomogeneities throughout the analyte sample. By concentrating the diamond nanoparticles through an intense microcentrifugation effect in an acoustomicrofluidic device, we show that the resultant dense NV ensembles within the diamond nanoparticles give rise to an order-of-magnitude improvement in the measured acquisition time. The ability to concentrate nanoparticles under surface acoustic wave (SAW) microcentrifugation in a sessile droplet is, in itself, surprising given the well-documented challenge of achieving such an effect for particles below 1 μm in dimension. In addition to a demonstration of their sensing performance, we thus reveal in this work that the reason why the diamond nanoparticles readily concentrate under the SAW-driven recirculatory flow can be attributed to their considerably higher density and hence larger acoustic contrast compared to those for typical particles and cells for which the SAW microcentrifugation flow has been shown to date.

On-demand mixing and dispersion in mini-pillar based microdroplets

The analysis and detection of ultra-trace biomarkers are often carried out in microliter droplets. Common stirring approaches have some difficulties in precise and contactless mixing and dispersion in microdroplets. In this work, an open mini-pillar-based platform that integrates with ultrasound units is developed to achieve contactless mixing and dispersion in microliter samples. On such a platform, mini-pillars can anchor microdroplets as individual microreactors, and each ultrasound unit can be remotely controlled to achieve on-demand contactless micro-stirring, which is also confirmed by mixing and dispersing of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (1 μm) in microdroplets (10 μL). Such on-demand high-throughput mixing and dispersion that integrates ultrasound mixing with microdroplet technology provides a potential robot-based platform for achieving high-throughput and ultra-trace biosensing in microliter droplets.

A Disposable Multiplexed Chip for the Simultaneous Quantification of Key Parameters in Water Quality Monitoring

On-site simultaneous quantification of multiple contaminants in a water body is challenging, especially for parameters requiring complicated chemical reactions to measure such as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen, and phosphate. A novel disposable multiplexed microfluidic device has been developed herein that allows the quantitative detection of up to five parameters at once. Solid reagent rather than commonly used liquid reagent was used to ensure long shelf life, and a "flow to dissolve" mechanism was provided accordingly for the thorough dissolution and mixing of a solid reagent on chip. Samples from river water and industrial wastewater were tested using the microfluidic chip, showing less than 15% deviation from results acquired with the traditional standard method. The test time though was only 1/6 of that required by the traditional method. In addition, the feasibility of using a smartphone to collect the colorimetric signal was discussed, and a data analysis method was provided for quantification purposes. The combination of the multiplexed chip and smartphone imaging provides a convenient and practical way to obtain accurate information on the water quality within a short period of time without the use of any sophisticated instruments.

In situ generation of plasma-activated aerosols via surface acoustic wave nebulization for portable spray-based surface bacterial inactivation

The presence of reactive species in plasma-activated water is known to induce oxidative stresses in bacterial species, which can result in their inactivation. By integrating a microfludic chipscale nebulizer driven by surface acoustic waves (SAWs) with a low-temperature atmospheric plasma source, we demonstrate an efficient technique for in situ production and application of plasma-activated aerosols for surface disinfection. Unlike bulk conventional systems wherein the water is separately batch-treated within a container, we show in this work the first demonstration of continuous plasma-treatment of water as it is transported through a paper strip from a reservoir onto the chipscale SAW device. The significantly larger surface area to volume ratio of the water within the paper strip leads to a significant reduction in the duration of the plasma-treatment, while maintaining the concentration of the reactive species. The subsequent nebulization of the plasma-activated water by the SAW then allows the generation of plasma-activated aerosols, which can be directly sprayed onto the contaminated surface, therefore eliminating the storage of the plasma-activated water and hence circumventing the typical limitation in conventional systems wherein the concentration of the reactive species diminishes over time during storage, resulting in a reduction in the efficacy of bacterial inactivation. In particular, we show up to 96% reduction in Escherichia coli colonies through direct spraying with the plasma-activated aerosols. This novel, low-cost, portable and energy-efficient hybrid system necessitates only minimal maintenance as it only requires the supply of tap water and battery power for operation, and is thus suitable for decontamination in home environments.

On-Chip Generation of Vortical Flows for Microfluidic Centrifugation

Microcentrifugation constitutes an important part of the microfluidic toolkit in a similar way that centrifugation is crucial to many macroscopic procedures, given that micromixing, sample preconcentration, particle separation, component fractionation, and cell agglomeration are essential operations in small scale processes. Yet, the dominance of capillary and viscous effects, which typically tend to retard flow, over inertial and gravitational forces, which are often useful for actuating flows and hence centrifugation, at microscopic scales makes it difficult to generate rotational flows at these dimensions, let alone with sufficient vorticity to support efficient mixing, separation, concentration, or aggregation. Herein, the various technologies-both passive and active-that have been developed to date for vortex generation in microfluidic devices are reviewed. Various advantages or limitations associated with each are outlined, in addition to highlighting the challenges that need to be overcome for their incorporation into integrated microfluidic devices.

High Frequency Sonoprocessing: A New Field of Cavitation-Free Acoustic Materials Synthesis, Processing, and Manipulation

Ultrasound constitutes a powerful means for materials processing. Similarly, a new field has emerged demonstrating the possibility for harnessing sound energy sources at considerably higher frequencies (10 MHz to 1 GHz) compared to conventional ultrasound (⩽3 MHz) for synthesizing and manipulating a variety of bulk, nanoscale, and biological materials. At these frequencies and the typical acoustic intensities employed, cavitation-which underpins most sonochemical or, more broadly, ultrasound-mediated processes-is largely absent, suggesting that altogether fundamentally different mechanisms are at play. Examples include the crystallization of novel morphologies or highly oriented structures; exfoliation of 2D quantum dots and nanosheets; polymer nanoparticle synthesis and encapsulation; and the possibility for manipulating the bandgap of 2D semiconducting materials or the lipid structure that makes up the cell membrane, the latter resulting in the ability to enhance intracellular molecular uptake. These fascinating examples reveal how the highly nonlinear electromechanical coupling associated with such high-frequency surface vibration gives rise to a variety of static and dynamic charge generation and transfer effects, in addition to molecular ordering, polarization, and assembly-remarkably, given the vast dimensional separation between the acoustic wavelength and characteristic molecular length scales, or between the MHz-order excitation frequencies and typical THz-order molecular vibration frequencies.

On-chip stool liquefaction via acoustofluidics

Microfluidic-based portable devices for stool analysis are important for detecting established biomarkers for gastrointestinal disorders and understanding the relationship between gut microbiota imbalances and various health conditions, ranging from digestive disorders to neurodegenerative diseases. However, the challenge of processing stool samples in microfluidic devices hinders the development of a standalone platform. Here, we present the first microfluidic chip that can liquefy stool samples via acoustic streaming. With an acoustic transducer actively generating strong micro-vortex streaming, stool samples and buffers in microchannel can be homogenized at a flow rate up to 30 μL min-1. After homogenization, an array of 100 μm wide micropillars can further purify stool samples by filtering out large debris. A favorable biocompatibility was also demonstrated for our acoustofluidic-based stool liquefaction chip by examining bacteria morphology and viability. Moreover, stool samples with different consistencies were liquefied. Our acoustofluidic chip offers a miniaturized, robust, and biocompatible solution for stool sample preparation in a microfluidic environment and can be potentially integrated with stool analysis units for designing portable stool diagnostics platforms.

Enhancing rate of water absorption in seeds via a miniature surface acoustic wave device

Seeds, which are high in protein and essential nutrients, must go through a hydration process before consumption. The ability to rapidly increase water absorption can significantly reduce the soaking time as well as the amount of energy needed for cooking seeds. Many studies in the literature employ high-power (10² W) low-frequency (10⁴ Hz) ultrasound; although their results are very promising where more than 100% increase in water content can be obtained between the treated and untreated seeds, the high-power and low-frequency ultrasound often causes acoustic cavitation under high intensity, which can severely disrupt the cell walls and damage the seeds. In our study, however, we demonstrate that treating the seeds via a miniature surface acoustic wave device, which operates at low-power (10⁰ W) and high-frequency (10⁷ Hz) range, gives rise to a higher water absorption rate without the acoustic cavitations. By comparing the water content between the treated and untreated seeds, an increase of up to 2600% (for chickpeas) and 6350% (for mung bean) can be obtained after 60 min. A significantly higher water absorption in mung beans can be attributed to the larger pore size when compared with the acoustic wavelength in water, enabling an efficient transmission of acoustic wave inside the pores. Our results also indicate that the germination time can be reduced by half for treated seeds as compared to the untreated seeds.

Applications of Acoustofluidics in Bioanalytical Chemistry

Acoustics has a broad spectrum of applications, ranging from noise cancelation to ultrasonic imaging. In the past decade, there has been increasing interest in developing acoustic-based methods for biological and biomedical applications. This Perspective summarizes the recent progress in applying acoustofluidic methods (i.e., the fusion of acoustics and microfluidics) to bioanalytical chemistry. We describe the concepts of acoustofluidics and how it can be tailored to different types of bioanalytical applications, including sample concentration, fluorescence-activated cell sorting, label-free cell/particle separation, and fluid manipulation. Examples of each application are given, and the benefits and limitations of these methods are discussed. Finally, our perspectives on the directions that developing solutions should take to address the bottlenecks in the acoustofluidic applications in bioanalytical chemistry are presented.

High frequency acoustic permeabilisation of drugs through tissue for localised mucosal delivery

The majority of infectious diseases enter the body through mucosal membranes that line the ocular, nasal, oral, vaginal and rectal surfaces. As infections can be effectively prevented by instigating a local immune response in the immunocyte-rich regions of the mucosa, an efficacious route of vaccine administration is to directly target their delivery to these surfaces. It is nevertheless challenging to provide sufficient driving force to penetrate both the mucus lining as well as the epithelial barrier of the mucosal surfaces, which are designed to effectively keep foreign entities out, but not excessively such that the therapeutic agent penetrates deeper into the vascularised submucosal regions where they are mostly taken up by the systemic circulation, thus resulting in a far weaker immune response. In this work, we demonstrate the possibility of controllably localising and hence maximising the delivery of both small and large molecule model therapeutic agents in the mucosa of a porcine buccal model using high frequency acoustics. Unlike their low (kHz order) frequency bulk ultrasonic counterpart, these high frequency (>10 MHz) surface waves do not generate cavitation, which leads to large molecular penetration depths beyond the 100 μm order thick mucosal layer, and which has been known to cause considerable cellular/tissue damage and hence scarring. Through system parameters such as the acoustic irradiation frequency, power and exposure duration, we show that it is possible to tune the penetration depth such that over 95% of the delivered drug are localised within the mucosal layer, whilst preserving their structural integrity.

Dynamic Tracking of Highly Toxic Intermediates in Photocatalytic Degradation of Pentachlorophenol by Continuous Flow Chemiluminescence

Photocatalytic degradation is a powerful technique for the decomposition of pollutants. However, toxic intermediates might be generated which have become a great concern recently. In the present work, a continuous flow chemiluminescence (CFCL) method was developed for dynamic monitoring of toxic intermediates generated in the photocatalytic degradation of pentachlorophenol (PCP). Among the main intermediates, tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone (TCBQ) and trichlorohydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone (OH-TrCBQ) showed higher or similar toxicity to PCP. As both TCBQ and OH-TrCBQ can produce chemiluminescence (CL) in the presence of H₂O₂, a CFCL system was established for the dynamic tracking of the two toxic intermediates. A PCP/TiO₂ suspension was irradiated in a photoreactor, pumped continuously into a detection cell, and mixed with H₂O₂ to produce CL. The time-dependent CL response displayed two distinctive peaks at pH 7, which were attributed to the generation of OH-TrCBQ and TCBQ, respectively, by comparing with their changes measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Furthermore, the CL response curve of PCP/TiO₂ suspension showed a pattern very similar to their bacteria inhibition. Therefore, the CFCL could be used as a simple and low-cost method for online monitoring of TCBQ and OH-TrCBQ to ensure complete removal of not only PCP but also highly toxic degradation intermediates.

Flow analysis with chemiluminescence detection: Recent advances and applications

This article highlights the most important developments in flow analysis with chemiluminescence (CL) detection, describing different flow systems that are compatible with CL detection, detector designs, commonly applied CL reactions and approaches to sample treatment. Recent applications of flow analysis with CL detection (focusing on outputs published since 2010) are also presented. Applications are classified by sample matrix, covering foods and beverages, environmental matrices, pharmaceuticals and biological fluids. Comprehensive tables are provided for each area, listing the specific sample matrix, CL reaction used, linear range, limit of detection and sample treatment for each analyte. Finally, recent and emerging trends in the field are also discussed.

Droplet trapping and fast acoustic release in a multi-height device with steady-state flow

We demonstrate a novel multilayer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device for selective storage and release of single emulsion droplets. Drops are captured in a microchannel cavity and can be released on-demand through a triggered surface acoustic wave pulse. The surface acoustic wave (SAW) is excited by a tapered interdigital transducer (TIDT) deposited on a piezoelectric lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) substrate and inverts the pressure difference across the cavity trap to push a drop out of the trap and back into the main flow channel. Droplet capture and release does not require a flow rate change, flow interruption, flow inversion or valve action and can be achieved in as fast as 20 ms. This allows both on-demand droplet capture for analysis and monitoring over arbitrary time scales, and continuous device operation with a high droplet rate of 620 drops per s. We hence decouple long-term droplet interrogation from other operations on the chip. This will ease integration with other microfluidic droplet operations and functional components.

A Facile and Flexible Method for On-Demand Directional Speed Tunability in the Miniaturised Lab-on-a-Disc

The Miniaturised Lab-on-a-Disc (miniLOAD) platform, which utilises surface acoustic waves (SAWs) to drive the rotation of thin millimeter-scale discs on which microchannels can be fabricated and hence microfluidic operations can be performed, offers the possibility of miniaturising its larger counterpart, the Lab-on-a-CD, for true portability in point-of-care applications. A significant limitation of the original miniLOAD concept, however, is that it does not allow for flexible control over the disc rotation direction and speed without manual adjustment of the disc’s position, or the use of multiple devices to alter the SAW frequency. In this work, we demonstrate the possibility of achieving such control with the use of tapered interdigitated transducers to confine a SAW beam such that the localised acoustic streaming it generates imparts a force, through hydrodynamic shear, at a specific location on the disc. Varying the torque that arises as a consequence by altering the input frequency to the transducers then allows the rotational velocity and direction of the disc to be controlled with ease. We derive a simple predictive model to illustrate the principle by which this occurs, which we find agrees well with the experimental measurements.

Recent Advances in Biosensor Development for Foodborne Virus Detection

Outbreaks of foodborne diseases related to fresh produce have been increasing in North America and Europe. Viral foodborne pathogens are poorly understood, suffering from insufficient awareness and surveillance due to the limits on knowledge, availability, and costs of related technologies and devices. Current foodborne viruses are emphasized and newly emerging foodborne viruses are beginning to attract interest. To face current challenges regarding foodborne pathogens, a point-of-care (POC) concept has been introduced to food testing technology and device. POC device development involves technologies such as microfluidics, nanomaterials, biosensors and other advanced techniques. These advanced technologies, together with the challenges in developing foodborne virus detection assays and devices, are described and analysed in this critical review. Advanced technologies provide a path forward for foodborne virus detection, but more research and development will be needed to provide the level of manufacturing capacity required.

Acoustomicrofluidic application of quasi-shear surface waves

The paper analyzes the possibility of using predominantly boundary polarized surface acoustic waves for actuating fluidic effects in microchannels fabricated inside containers made of PDMS. The aim is to remove a shortcoming peculiar to conventionally utilized predominantly vertically polarized waves. Such waves strongly attenuate while they propagate under container side walls because of the leakage into them. Due to a specific feature of PDMS - extremely small shear elastic modulus - losses of boundary polarized modes should be far smaller. The amplitude of vertical mechanical displacements can be increased right inside the channel owing to the scattering of acoustic fields. As an example, the predominantly vertically polarized surface wave on 128YX LiNbO₃ is compared with the quasi-shear leaky wave on 64YX LiNbO₃. Our computations predict that, given the electric power supplied to the launching transducer, the quasi-shear wave will drive the fluid more efficiently than the surface wave on 128YX LiNbO₃ when the container wall thickness is larger than 25-30 wavelengths, if there are no additional scatterers inside the channel. In the presence of a scatterer, such as a thin gold strip, the quasi-shear wave can be more efficient when the wall thickness exceeds 10-15 wavelengths.

Surface acoustic wave devices for chemical sensing and microfluidics: A review and perspective

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs), are electro-mechanical waves that form on the surface of piezoelectric crystals. Because they are easy to construct and operate, SAW devices have proven to be versatile and powerful platforms for either direct chemical sensing or for upstream microfluidic processing and sample preparation. This review summarizes recent advances in the development of SAW devices for chemical sensing and analysis. The use of SAW techniques for chemical detection in both gaseous and liquid media is discussed, as well as recent fabrication advances that are pointing the way for the next generation of SAW sensors. Similarly, applications and progress in using SAW devices as microfluidic platforms are covered, ranging from atomization and mixing to new approaches to lysing and cell adhesion studies. Finally, potential new directions and perspectives on the field as it moves forward are offered, with a specific focus on potential strategies for making SAW technologies for bioanalytical applications.

Acoustially-mediated microfluidic nanofiltration through graphene films

We exploit the possibility of enhancing the molecular transport of liquids through graphene films using amplitude modulated surface acoustic waves (SAWs) to demonstrate effective and efficient nanoparticle filtration. The use of the SAW, which is an extremely efficient means for driving microfluidic transport, overcomes the need for the large mechanical pumps required to circumvent the large pressure drops encountered in conventional membranes for nanoparticle filtration. 100% filtration efficiency was obtained for micron-dimension particulates, decreasing to only 95% for the filtration of particles of tens of nanometers in dimension, which is comparable to that achieved with other methods. To circumvent clogging of the film, which is typical with all membrane filters, a backwash operation to flush the nanoparticles is incorporated simply by reversing the SAW-induced flow such that 98% recovery of the initial filtration rate is recovered. Given these efficiencies, together with the low cost and compact size of the chipscale SAW devices, we envisage the possibility of scaling out the process by operating a large number of devices in parallel to achieve typical industrial-scale throughputs with potential benefits in terms of substantially lower capital, operating and maintenance costs.

Graphene-mediated microfluidic transport and nebulization via high frequency Rayleigh wave substrate excitation

The deposition of a thin graphene film atop a chip scale piezoelectric substrate on which surface acoustic waves are excited is observed to enhance its performance for fluid transport and manipulation considerably, which can be exploited to achieve further efficiency gains in these devices. Such gains can then enable complete integration and miniaturization for true portability for a variety of microfluidic applications across drug delivery, biosensing and point-of-care diagnostics, among others, where field-use, point-of-collection or point-of-care functionality is desired. In addition to a first demonstration of vibration-induced molecular transport in graphene films, we show that the coupling of the surface acoustic wave gives rise to antisymmetric Lamb waves in the film which enhance molecular diffusion and hence the flow through the interstitial layers that make up the film. Above a critical input power, the strong substrate vibration displacement can also force the molecules out of the graphene film to form a thin fluid layer, which subsequently destabilizes and breaks up to form a mist of micron dimension aerosol droplets. We provide physical insight into this coupling through a simple numerical model, verified through experiments, and show several-fold improvement in the rate of fluid transport through the film, and up to 55% enhancement in the rate of fluid atomization from the film using this simple method.

Amplitude modulation schemes for enhancing acoustically-driven microcentrifugation and micromixing

The ability to drive microcentrifugation for efficient micromixing and particle concentration and separation on a microfluidic platform is critical for a wide range of lab-on-a-chip applications. In this work, we investigate the use of amplitude modulation to enhance the efficiency of the microcentrifugal recirculation flows in surface acoustic wave microfluidic systems, thus concomitantly reducing the power consumption in these devices for a given performance requirement-a crucial step in the development of miniaturized, integrated circuits for true portable functionality. In particular, we show that it is possible to obtain an increase of up to 60% in the acoustic streaming velocity in a microdroplet with kHz order modulation frequencies due to the intensification in Eckart streaming; the streaming velocity is increasing as the modulation index is increased. Additionally, we show that it is possible to exploit this streaming enhancement to effect improvements in the speed of particle concentration by up to 70% and the efficiency of micromixing by 50%, together with a modest decrease in the droplet temperature.

A dual-readout chemiluminescent-gold lateral flow test for multiplex and ultrasensitive detection of disease biomarkers in real samples

Even though the gold lateral flow test (GLFT) is low-cost and allows for point-of-care testing (POCT), its intrinsic limitations including low sensitivity and incapability of quantification significantly hinder the clinical application of GLFT for assaying disease biomarkers. To improve the performance of the GLFT without sacrificing its simplicity, we develop a chemiluminescent-gold lateral flow test (C-mode GLFT) for quantitative and multiplex detection of disease biomarkers with an ultrahigh sensitivity at a picomolar level. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and antibody (Ab) are simultaneously labeled onto the surface of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to achieve a dual-readout (chemiluminescent and visual, C&V-mode GLFT). A red color appears at the test line caused by the accumulation of captured AuNPs in the presence of targets, while HRP on the surface of AuNPs catalyzes the chemiluminescence reaction of luminol to amplify the signal. C-mode GLFT is successfully used for detecting tumor biomarkers (alpha fetoprotein, AFP, and carcino embryonic antigen, CEA) and bacterial infection biomarkers (procalcitonin, PCT) in serum samples as well as whole blood. The excellent features of C-mode GLFT such as straightforward operation, ultrahigh sensitivity and quantitative detection, make it a promising platform for POCT of a variety of disease biomarkers in real samples.

Computation of the pressure field generated by surface acoustic waves in microchannels

The high-frequency pressure induced by a surface acoustic wave in the fluid filling a microchannel is computed by solving the full scattering problem. The microchannel is fabricated inside a container attached to the top of a piezoelectric substrate where the surface wave propagates. The finite element method is used. The pressure found in this way is compared with the pressure obtained by solving boundary-value problems formulated on the basis of simplifications which have been introduced in earlier papers by other research studies. The considered example shows that the difference between the results can be significant, ranging from several tens of percent up to several times in different points inside the channel.

Recent advances in microfluidic actuation and micro-object manipulation via surface acoustic waves

The realization of microscale total analysis systems and lab-on-a-chip technologies requires efficient actuation (mixing, pumping, atomizing, nebulizing, driving, etc.) of fluids on the microscopic scale and dexterous manipulation (separation, sorting, trapping, concentration, merging, patterning, aligning, focusing, etc.) of micro-objects (cells, droplets, particles, nanotubes, etc.) in open (sessile droplets) as well as confined spaces (microchannels/chambers). These capabilities have been recently achieved using powerful acoustofluidic techniques based on high-frequency (10-1000 MHz) surface acoustic waves (SAWs). SAW-based miniaturized microfluidic devices are best known for their non-invasive properties, low costs, and ability to manipulate micro-objects in a label-free manner. The energy-efficient SAWs are also compatible with conventional microfabrication technologies. The present work critically analyses recent reports describing the use of SAWs in microfluidic actuation and micro-object manipulation. Acoustofluidic techniques may be categorized according to the use of travelling SAWs (TSAWs) or standing SAWs (SSAWs). TSAWs are used to actuate fluids and manipulate micro-objects via acoustic streaming flow (ASF) as well as acoustic radiation force (ARF). SSAWs are mainly used for micro-object manipulation and are rarely employed for microfluidic actuation. We have reviewed reports of new technological developments that have not been covered in other recent reviews. In the end, we describe the future prospects of SAW-based acoustofluidic technologies.