Dresden 2006 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help
DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 46: Poster
DY 46.4: Poster
Thursday, March 30, 2006, 16:00–18:00, P1
Self-assembly of pumps for microfluidic devices — •Stefan Bleil1, David Marr2, and Clemens Bechinger1 — 12. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany — 2Chemical Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401
The use of microfluidic devices requires active components (pumps or valves) which can direct and control liquids in such structures. We present a novel approach where pumps and valves are created by a self-assembly process which allows the realization of thousands of pumps at the same time. This is achieved by subjecting super paramagnetic colloidal particles to a circular polarized magnetic field, which results in a rotation of particles and thus leads to a fluid flow. Because the magnetic field induces additionally an attraction between adjacent particles, we can also create rotating particle clusters of different size. To control single pumps individually we use optical tweezers, which can stop or slow down the motion of particle clusters. In addition to the advantage of forming large arrays of individually addressable pumps, our approach allows also to scale the pumps down to the nanometer range by using smaller particles.