Advanced Micromixing Technology

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "A:Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 1755

Special Issue Editor

Department of Engineering and Aviation Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD 21853, USA
Interests: microfluidics; non-Newtonian microfluid; electrokinetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microfluidics has attracted increasing attention with its significant applications for biological and medical processes such as chemical synthesis, disease diagnosis, drug delivery, and genetic analysis. Mixing of species in microfluidics plays an important role in many of these applications. Due to low Reynold Numbers, the fluid mixing is limited to diffusion, leading to difficulties in achieving rapid and efficient mixing of fluids in microchannels. The mixing efficiency can directly affect the performance of the whole microfluidic system. Researchers have employed different techniques to enhance the mixing efficiency of microfluidic devices, classified as passive (obstacles, serpentine, lamination and spiral structures, etc.) and active (acoustic, electric, pressure, magnetic field, etc.) micromixers.

In this Special Issue, we welcome research papers and review articles related to the applications, fundamentals, novel design, experiments, and analysis of micromixing technology.

Dr. Lanju Mei
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • microfluidic mixing
  • mixing efficiency
  • passive micromixer
  • active micromixer
  • acoustic, electric, pressure, magnetic field, etc.
  • micromixing technology
  • obstacles, serpentine, lamination and spiral structures, etc.

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 1937 KiB  
Article
Fabrication of a Spiral Microfluidic Chip for the Mass Production of Lipid Nanoparticles Using Laser Engraving
by Inseong Choi, Mincheol Cho, Minseo Song, Byeong Wook Ryu, Bo Mi Kang, Joonyeong Kim, Tae-Kyung Ryu and Sung-Wook Choi
Micromachines 2025, 16(5), 501; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi16050501 - 25 Apr 2025
Viewed by 200
Abstract
A spiral microfluidic chip (SMC) and multi-spiral microfluidic chip (MSMC) for lipid nanoparticle (LNP) production were fabricated using a CO2 laser engraving method, using perfluoropolyether (PFPE) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate as photopolymerizable base materials. The SMC includes a spiral microchannel that enables [...] Read more.
A spiral microfluidic chip (SMC) and multi-spiral microfluidic chip (MSMC) for lipid nanoparticle (LNP) production were fabricated using a CO2 laser engraving method, using perfluoropolyether (PFPE) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate as photopolymerizable base materials. The SMC includes a spiral microchannel that enables rapid fluid mixing, thereby facilitating the production of small and uniform LNPs with a size of 72.82 ± 24.14 nm and a PDI of 0.111 ± 0.011. The MSMC integrates multiple parallel SMC structures, which enables high-throughput LNP production without compromising quality and achieves a maximum production capacity of 960 mL per hour. The LNP fabrication technology using SMC and MSMC has potential applications in the pharmaceutical field due to the ease of chip fabrication, the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the process, and the ability to produce high-quality LNPs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Micromixing Technology)
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19 pages, 5043 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Mixing in Microflow Systems Using Magnetic Fields—Experimental and Numerical Analyses
by Marek Wojnicki, Xuegeng Yang, Piotr Zabinski and Gerd Mutschke
Micromachines 2025, 16(4), 422; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi16040422 - 31 Mar 2025
Viewed by 315
Abstract
This study presents both numerical and experimental analyses of enhanced mixing in a microflow system under the influence of a magnetic field. The research employed COMSOL Multiphysics for numerical simulations and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) for experimental validation. In the experimental microfluidic setup, [...] Read more.
This study presents both numerical and experimental analyses of enhanced mixing in a microflow system under the influence of a magnetic field. The research employed COMSOL Multiphysics for numerical simulations and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) for experimental validation. In the experimental microfluidic setup, permanent neodymium magnets were used to influence a laminar flow of water partially enriched with Ho(III) ions using the magnetic field. The findings confirmed that the strong interaction between Ho(III) ions and the magnetic field significantly affected the flow and may have resulted in vortex shedding downstream of the region with the highest magnetic field intensity. The numerical simulations demonstrated good agreement with the PIV experimental results. These findings suggest that it is possible to significantly enhance mixing in microflow systems without mechanical components, solely by exploiting the differences in the magnetic properties between the mixing substances. Traditionally, microreactors have been limited by mixing speeds governed by diffusion. These new results indicate the practical possibility of increasing mixing intensity in a cost-effective and safe manner. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Micromixing Technology)
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13 pages, 945 KiB  
Article
Inverse Tesla Valve as Micromixer for Water Purification
by Christos Liosis, George Sofiadis, Evangelos Karvelas, Theodoros Karakasidis and Ioannis Sarris
Micromachines 2024, 15(11), 1371; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15111371 - 14 Nov 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 822
Abstract
Contaminated water has remained an unsolved problem for decades, particularly when the contamination derived from heavy metals. A possible solution is to mix the contaminated water with magnetic nanoparticles so that an adsorption process can take place. In that frame, Tesla valve micromixer [...] Read more.
Contaminated water has remained an unsolved problem for decades, particularly when the contamination derived from heavy metals. A possible solution is to mix the contaminated water with magnetic nanoparticles so that an adsorption process can take place. In that frame, Tesla valve micromixer and Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were selected to perform simulations for encounter maximum mixing efficiency. These simulations focus on inlet velocities ratios between contaminated water and nanoparticles and inlet rates of nanoparticles. The maximum mixing efficiency was 44% for the inverse double Tesla micromixer found for the combination of Fe3O4 nanoparticles as the inlet rate and with inlet velocity ratios of VpVc=10. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Micromixing Technology)
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