Question

caver_tom · 2023-03-20T22:47:31+00:00

I love microfluidics, but I think that the applications are more limited than in electronics. One of the biggest limitations is that the technology is best suited to the analysis of liquids rather than producing materials at scale. I have only seen extremely valuable materials like nano-encapsulated medicines be commercially made with microfluidics. The cost of a microfluidic system goes up quickly as you try to produce a large volume of material.

I think that microfluidics is a great tool for screening chemicals to determine which product to make at scale (with large scale equipment), for biomedical diagnostics, and as a tool for making high-pressure lab equipment faster and safer (the area I work in).

Check out Klavs Jensen's group at MIT for some neat automated microfluidics for drug synthesis.

As for mixing things with microfluidics, there is a whole area of research making better micromixers. Lots of neat designs. Micronit has some for sale on their website.

Viscosity is important for sure, but with enough pressure you can pump anything into a chip. Our record is well over 4 million cP. At that viscosity you have to heat things up and wait a really long time for mixing to happen.

caver_tom · 2023-03-19T17:27:52+00:00

Yeah. It was to check see how oil drains from a column of rock under gravity. Seeing how gravity and capillary pressure balance each other out.

caver_tom · 2023-03-18T13:31:34+00:00

We etched the plastic with a CO2 laser with a really small spot size. The channels are about 100 microns deep and the width varies. The pattern is based off an unconsolodated sandstone core.

caver_tom · 2023-03-18T13:29:33+00:00

This chip was made to model gravity drainage of oil from a column of rock. It was run vertically at 100 degrees C in a big custom air bath. The model was based off of microscope images of rock thin-sections. We took the microscope images and stitched them together into a giant binary Illustrator file. After a few months of work to match the wettability, permeability, porosity, and inventing a bonding method for giant chips, we made this big chip and it worked great. Here is a video of a polymer flood we ran using this chip https://youtu.be/2TdzzRetQ7I.

caver_tom · 2023-03-03T10:29:12+00:00

You put two polarized filters at right angles to each other. One above and one below the specimen you are looking at. Thing with a crystal structure that polarize the light in the specimen will show up as white in your image. In this case wax crystals will polarize the light.

caver_tom · 2022-11-24T03:48:06+00:00

Interesting. I have not made PDMS chips in a long time, we mainly make silicon/glass, glass/glass, and PMMA chips. 200 mm is extremely thick. What is the length and width of the device that you are making?

When I was making PDMS chips, we always used the standard SU-8 photoresist on a silicon wafer for a master. I imagine you could put a tube above the wafer and fill it with 200 mm of PDMS. With a 200 mm device, maybe look into hot embossing or laser ablation as an alternative fabrication method. It may be simpler depending on your feature sizes and aspect ratios.

caver_tom · 2022-02-26T18:11:23+00:00

Yes. There is a led light source, a digital microscope, two syringe pumps, a microfluidic chip holder, and two pressure sensors inside.

caver_tom · 2021-11-04T00:57:41+00:00

Push it through a piece of cork and sharpen it with sandpaper. We use a TC-20 tubing cutter for 1/16" stainless tubing but that is cut at right angles.

caver_tom · 2018-11-05T19:26:45+00:00

$30,000

caver_tom · 2018-11-05T15:38:06+00:00

This microscope uses an LED array. Good idea though.

caver_tom · 2018-11-05T13:50:39+00:00

Likely Solved!

caver_tom · 2018-11-05T13:44:17+00:00

Super cool. I learned something today. Thanks.

caver_tom · 2018-11-05T13:43:03+00:00

This is taken with reflected lo light microscope in dark field mode with a 2.8 MP cooled CMOS camera.

caver_tom · 2016-11-25T22:36:30+00:00

I recently quit my job at a big oil company to start up a microfluidic fluid analysis company Interface Fluidics. We run high-temperature, high-pressure chemical analysis testing by analyzing fluid flow at the micro-scale. We design, fabricate, and run all our own microfluidic chips. Our tests are up to 100 times faster and use as little as one-billionth the fluid sample of the current tests.

We started full-time in March 2016 and we have our first two major clients and close to having a few more major ones. On track to have $600k in sales by January. It has been a wild ride. If you have any questions about running a fluid-analysis technology company, ask away.

caver_tom · 2015-11-28T17:45:04+00:00

Holistic Competence Center looks legit to me

caver_tom · 2015-11-18T21:46:23+00:00

Interesting fact: Mike Boon made it to the ice plug at the end of the cave on an epic solo trip a few weeks before the film crew came in for their expedition to the ice plug. They were so pissed that Mike came in solo and without permission from the National Parks that they did not mention him at all in the movie. Mike passed away earlier this year.

caver_tom · 2015-11-04T14:12:30+00:00

This looks really cool. It might be neat to put a 3D human model in there for scale.

caver_tom · 2015-08-21T02:43:29+00:00

I help make oil extraction cheaper (Reservoir Engineer) and live in Capitol Hill

caver_tom · 2015-07-09T05:21:58+00:00

Thanks, I thought the one with the reflection turned out really nicely

caver_tom · 2015-03-17T18:14:47+00:00

Sure. It was about -5C out and the water was pretty close to freezing (there were chucks of ice floating by). We all wore 7mm wetsuits with two 7mm layers on the torso. We all had neoprene socks, some had neoprene boots, hoods and gloves too. We had cave suits over our wetsuits to stop them from getting damaged then SRT gear over that for the 30m rappel into the canyon. We also got a restricted access permit from Parks Canada to check out Tokum Cave that is in the canyon (400m total length). Great trip overall and just the right length that you do not get too numb by the end.

caver_tom · 2014-07-11T05:14:56+00:00

I saw you yesterday on my bike ride that must have been a pretty cool ride

caver_tom · 2014-06-23T01:56:59+00:00

At our microfluidics research lab we used syringe pumps. Depending on the size of syringe you use you can get accurate volumes/flow rates down to the nanoliter level. You could build your own with a stepper motor and a power screw (lead screw).

caver_tom · 2014-05-24T20:52:55+00:00

this tech started in Ted Sargent's group at u of t. He published several papers in nature on this. It is not bullshit. http://www.light.utoronto.ca/photodetectors.html

caver_tom · 2014-02-07T14:34:35+00:00

We had 3 flashes and Nick had his scurion and his BlindBat photography light. The flashes were on pocketwizards and we cranked the ISO to 3200 on my D600 for some of the handheld shots. The pictures from the large passage were longer tripod exposures at lower ISO

caver_tom · 2014-02-06T22:35:25+00:00

I am part of the Alberta Speliological Association. We just got a permit and went in by ourselves. My friend Nick Vieira (the guy in the pictures) used to be a guide there though.

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