Abstract
It is essential to control concentration gradients at specific locations for many biochemical experiments. This paper proposes a tunable concentration gradient generator actuated by acoustically oscillating bubbles trapped in the bubble channels using a controllable position based on the gas permeability of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The gradient generator consists of a glass substrate, a PDMS chip, and a piezoelectric transducer. When the trapped bubbles are activated by acoustic waves, the solution near the gas–liquid interface is mixed. The volume of the bubbles and the position of the gas–liquid interface are regulated through the permeability of the PDMS wall. The tunable concentration gradient can be realized by changing the numbers and positions of the bubbles that enable the mixing of fluids in the main channel, and the amplitude of the applied voltage. This new device is easy to fabricate, responsive, and biocompatible, and therefore has great application prospects. In particular, it is suitable for biological research with high requirements for temporal controllability.
Highlights
Investigating the response of cells in organisms to different chemical stimuli can help demonstrate specific factors that regulate the cell biological behavior [1]
When air-port 1 was connected to a positive pressure, the gas–liquid interface moved along the bubble channel to the main channel, and the oscillation of the upper bubble mixed the solution in the main channel again, and the concentration intensity of the marked area gradually increased
We present a new type of device that could tune the concentration gradient of a main channel solution in real time by moving the air–liquid interface of the oscillating bubble trapped in the bubble channel
Summary
Investigating the response of cells in organisms to different chemical stimuli can help demonstrate specific factors that regulate the cell biological behavior [1]. Many of these generators mix solutions based on convection and diffusion principles, including tree-shaped structure [17,18,19], Y-shaped structure [20,21], membrane system [22,23], droplet-based system [24,25], hydrodynamic system [26,27], and microarray [28,29] Most of these passive devices have difficulty regulating the gradients in the channel spatiotemporally; they are only suitable for experiments that require the creation of a stable concentration gradient micro-environment. Daniel Ahmed [32] presented a ladder-arranged horseshoe-shaped structure to capture the bubbles, which were driven by acoustic waves to mix the surrounding solutions and to create concentration gradients They regulated the concentration gradients spatially and temporally by changing the applied voltage. It is mainly suitable for biological research with high requirements for temporal controllability
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