Passive Mixing inside Microdroplets
1
Energy Research Institute, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250014, China
2
Key Laboratory of Biobased Polymer Materials, Shandong Provincial Education Department, School of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Micromachines 2018, 9(4), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9040160
Received: 31 January 2018
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Revised: 22 March 2018
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Accepted: 23 March 2018
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Published: 1 April 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Optofluidics)
Droplet-based micromixers are essential units in many microfluidic devices for widespread applications, such as diagnostics and synthesis. The mixers can be either passive or active. When compared to active methods, the passive mixer is widely used because it does not require extra energy input apart from the pump drive. In recent years, several passive droplet-based mixers were developed, where mixing was characterized by both experiments and simulation. A unified physical understanding of both experimental processes and simulation models is beneficial for effectively developing new and efficient mixing techniques. This review covers the state-of-the-art passive droplet-based micromixers in microfluidics, which mainly focuses on three aspects: (1) Mixing parameters and analysis method; (2) Typical mixing element designs and the mixing characters in experiments; and, (3) Comprehensive introduction of numerical models used in microfluidic flow and diffusion.
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Keywords:
passive mixing; microdroplets; multiphase; simulation model
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MDPI and ACS Style
Chen, C.; Zhao, Y.; Wang, J.; Zhu, P.; Tian, Y.; Xu, M.; Wang, L.; Huang, X. Passive Mixing inside Microdroplets. Micromachines 2018, 9, 160. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9040160
AMA Style
Chen C, Zhao Y, Wang J, Zhu P, Tian Y, Xu M, Wang L, Huang X. Passive Mixing inside Microdroplets. Micromachines. 2018; 9(4):160. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9040160
Chicago/Turabian StyleChen, Chengmin, Yingjie Zhao, Jianmei Wang, Pingan Zhu, Ye Tian, Min Xu, Liqiu Wang, and Xiaowen Huang. 2018. "Passive Mixing inside Microdroplets" Micromachines 9, no. 4: 160. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9040160
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