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Published Online January 4, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1134514

Reports

Submitted on August 30, 2006
Accepted on December 12, 2006

Coding/Decoding and Reversibility of Droplet Trains in Microfluidic Networks

Michael J. Fuerstman 1, Piotr Garstecki 2*, George M. Whitesides 1*

1 Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Piotr Garstecki , E-mail: garst{at}ichf.edu.pl
George M. Whitesides , E-mail: gwhitesides{at}gmwgroup.harvard.edu

Droplets of one liquid suspended in a second, immiscible liquid move through a microfluidic device in which a channel splits into two branches that reconnect downstream. The droplets choose a path based on the number of droplets that occupy each branch. The interaction among droplets in the channels results in complex sequences of path-selection. The linearity of the flow through the microchannels, however, ensures that the behavior of the system can be reversed. This reversibility makes it possible to encrypt and decrypt signals coded in the intervals between droplets. The encoding/decoding device is a functional microfluidic system that requires droplets to navigate a network in a precise manner without the use of valves, switches or other means of external control.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Microfluidic Bubble Logic.
M. Prakash and N. Gershenfeld (2007)
Science 315, 832-835
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)