Axel Huerre

A Review of Heating and Temperature Control in Microfluidic Systems: Techniques and Applications

This review presents an overview of the different techniques developed over the last decade to regulate the temperature within microfluidic systems. A variety of different approaches has been adopted, from external heating sources to Joule heating, microwaves or the use of lasers to cite just a few examples. The scope of the technical solutions developed to date is impressive and encompasses for instance temperature ramp rates ranging from 0.1 to 2,000 °C/s leading to homogeneous temperatures from −3 °C to 120 °C, and constant gradients from 6 to 40 °C/mm with a fair degree of accuracy. We also examine some recent strategies developed for applications such as digital microfluidics, where integration of a heating source to generate a temperature gradient offers control of a key parameter, without necessarily requiring great accuracy. Conversely, Temperature Gradient Focusing requires high accuracy in order to control both the concentration and separation of charged species. In addition, the Polymerase Chain Reaction requires both accuracy (homogeneous temperature) and integration to carry out demanding heating cycles. The spectrum of applications requiring temperature regulation is growing rapidly with increasingly important implications for the physical, chemical and biotechnological sectors, depending on the relevant heating technique.

Laplace pressure based disjoining pressure isotherm in non symmetric conditions

Understanding the stability and dynamics of two phase systems, such as foams and emulsions, in porous media is still a challenge for physicists and calls for a better understanding of the intermolecular interactions between interfaces. In a classical approach, these interactions are investigated in the framework of Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey, and Overbeek (DLVO) theory by building disjoining pressure isotherms. This paper reports on a technique allowing the measurement of disjoining pressure isotherms in a thin liquid film squeezed by either a gas or a liquid phase on a solid substrate. We couple a Reflection Interference Contrast Microscopy set-up to a microfluidic channel that sets the disjoining pressure through the Laplace pressure. This simple technique is found to be both accurate and precise. The Laplace pressure mechanism provides extremely stable conditions and offers opportunity for parallelizing experiments by producing several drops in channels of different heights. We illustrate its potential ...