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Science 25 January 2002:
Vol. 295. no. 5555, pp. 647 - 651
DOI: 10.1126/science.1066238
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Reports

Chaotic Mixer for Microchannels

Abraham D. Stroock,1* Stephan K. W. Dertinger,1 Armand Ajdari,2 Igor Mezic,3 Howard A. Stone,4 George M. Whitesides1*

It is difficult to mix solutions in microchannels. Under typical operating conditions, flows in these channels are laminar--the spontaneous fluctuations of velocity that tend to homogenize fluids in turbulent flows are absent, and molecular diffusion across the channels is slow. We present a passive method for mixing streams of steady pressure-driven flows in microchannels at low Reynolds number. Using this method, the length of the channel required for mixing grows only logarithmically with the Péclet number, and hydrodynamic dispersion along the channel is reduced relative to that in a simple, smooth channel. This method uses bas-relief structures on the floor of the channel that are easily fabricated with commonly used methods of planar lithography.

1 Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, CNRS UMR 7083, École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France.
3 Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering and Department of Mathematics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
4 Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stroock{at}fas.harvard.edu, gwhitesides{at}gmwgroup.harvard.edu

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