Micronit Microfluidics has introduced four off-the-shelf glass microfluidic mixers enabling high-quality mixing of micro or nanolitres of fluids, in fractions of seconds
Lab-on-a-chip is the miniaturisation of a laboratory to a small chip, enabling fluidic experiments on a microscale.
When injecting different fluids into a microchip, the fluids are mixed more by diffusion than by convection.
In Micronit's mixerchips however, mixing is advanced promoted by the special mixer elements Micronit has integrated into the microchips.
Key features of the Micronit micromixers are the very short mixing times - down to milliseconds - and the ideally mixed conditions.
The mixers enable fast and effective mixing, even at low pressures.
They are based on two mixing principles developed by Micronit and the University of Sheffield: the Tear-Drop mixer, for use with low Reynolds number mixing, and the Swirl mixer, for use with high Reynolds number mixing.
"The demand for efficient micromixers was the key driver for the research we performed on this technology," said Marko Blom, R+D manager at Micronit and responsible for the micromixer development.
"Although it is sometimes thought that the problem of mixing at small scales has been solved, still no easy-to-use passive micromixers exist that can easily be integrated into a microfluidic chip.
"The introduction of the Micronit standard glass micromixers is a step forward in the application of micromixing in life sciences and chemistry.
"The use of glass makes the micromixer optically clear and suitable for aggressive chemicals".
The micromixers are available in four options, and can be combined with a lab-on-a-chip kit.
This LOAC Micromixer Kit enables to create a complete micromixer set-up for immediate start of micromixing experiments.
