Abstract
Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is widely used in microfluidic devices. However, its relatively high hydrophobicity causes difficulties in flow startup among parallel microchannels, leading to permanent idleness of incompletely filled channels. It was found that capillary pressure arising from bubbles spanning the cross-section of a microchannel was the major force for flow blockage. The threshold flowrate for uniform flow startup in parallel microchannels was dictated by balancing the maximum capillary pressure and the hydrodynamic pressure drop in a microchannel, which was confirmed in a series of experiments using 2 × 4 and 4 × 4 perfusion microreactor arrays. Filling microchannels with porous fibrous matrices can increase the hydrodynamic pressure drop and thus allows uniform flow startup at low threshold flowrates. This study demonstrated that the use of fibrous matrices in microchannels provided a simple yet effective method of controlling uniform flow startup in parallel hydrophobic microchannels.
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