Circular Microfluidic System for Electrochemical Continuous Monitoring of Biochemical Processes in Emulsion Droplets

Droplet microfluidics has proved efficiency in simple manipulating of small volumes of liquid samples, especially in combination with electrochemical means of detection e.g., field-effect transistors, amperometric sensors, impedimetric sensors, and etc. The abovementioned combination has grown in a lab on a chip approach for the detection of various substances. However, the problem of precise droplet manipulation and long-term recirculation over individual sensors still present. Here we present a microfluidic design and the way of liquid control that enables recirculation real-time monitoring of hundreds of droplets with nanowire-based impedimetric sensors. The long-term recirculation of droplets over the nanowire area can be used for monitoring biochemical reactions whose real-time analysis of the kinetics can be advantageous for a more precise analysis. The combination of circular microfluidics and nanosensors allows long term recirculation of droplets over the sensor which can be used for monitoring of bio-chemical reactions within solutions or cell/bacteria cultures. The generation of hundreds of droplet reactors provides high reliability and throughput of the result due to statistical reasons, precise flow-rate manipulation allows viability of the assay and impedimetric way of monitoring provides an immersive analysis of the embedded compounds.