Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
(PhysOrg.com) -- Microfluidic chemistry is fast gaining popularity – and for good reason: In addition to allowing highly-precise reaction control, micro-reactions often exhibit higher yield and proceed faster than their macroscale cousins. They also readily scale to production environments, and are far safer when synthesizing hazardous compounds because of the very small volumes of materials inside the devices. Recently, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have advanced the field by developing and demonstrating an all-electronic digital microfluidic device for microscale chemical synthesis in organic solvents – and that is operated by electrowetting-on-dielectric, or EWOD. (Electrowetting modifies the wetting properties of a surface by applying an electric field; EWOD coats the electrode forming that surface with a dielectric insulating layer.) Their robust EWOD platform simultaneously resolves two limitations of previous technologies – namely, multistep reaction protocols and organic solvent compatibility.