Digital acoustofluidics enables contactless and programmable liquid handling

Steven Peiran Zhang, James Lata, Chuyi Chen, John Mai, Feng Guo, Zhenhua Tian, Liqiang Ren, Zhangming Mao, Po-Hsun Huang, Peng Li, Shujie Yang and Tony Jun Huang ()
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Steven Peiran Zhang: Duke University
James Lata: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Chuyi Chen: Duke University
John Mai: University of Southern California
Feng Guo: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Zhenhua Tian: Duke University
Liqiang Ren: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Zhangming Mao: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Po-Hsun Huang: Duke University
Peng Li: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Shujie Yang: Duke University
Tony Jun Huang: Duke University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract For decades, scientists have pursued the goal of performing automated reactions in a compact fluid processor with minimal human intervention. Most advanced fluidic handling technologies (e.g., microfluidic chips and micro-well plates) lack fluid rewritability, and the associated benefits of multi-path routing and re-programmability, due to surface-adsorption-induced contamination on contacting structures. This limits their processing speed and the complexity of reaction test matrices. We present a contactless droplet transport and processing technique called digital acoustofluidics which dynamically manipulates droplets with volumes from 1 nL to 100 µL along any planar axis via acoustic-streaming-induced hydrodynamic traps, all in a contamination-free (lower than 10−10% diffusion into the fluorinated carrier oil layer) and biocompatible (99.2% cell viability) manner. Hence, digital acoustofluidics can execute reactions on overlapping, non-contaminated, fluidic paths and can scale to perform massive interaction matrices within a single device.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05297-z

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