A microfluidic device for performing physical, chemical or biological treatment to at least one packet without contamination.

A gas reactor device includes a plurality of microcavities or microchannels defined at least partially within a thick metal oxide layer consisting essentially of defect free oxide. Electrodes are arranged with respect to the microcavities or microchannels to stimulate plasma generation therein upon application of suitable voltage. One or more or all of the electrodes are encapsulated within the thick metal oxide layer. A gas inlet is configured to receive feedstock gas into the plurality of microcavities or microchannels. An outlet is configured to outlet reactor product from the plurality of microcavities or microchannels. In an example preferred device, the feedstock gas is air or O.sub.2 and is converted by the plasma into ozone (O.sub.3). In another preferred device, the feedstock gas is an unwanted gas to be decomposed into a desired form. Gas reactor devices of the invention can, for example, decompose gases such as CO.sub.2, CH.sub.4, or NO.sub.x.

The present invention concerns a microfluidic device (1) for performing physical, chemical or biological treatment to at least one packet without contamination.

The invention generally relates to assemblies for displacing droplets from a vessel that facilitate the collection and transfer of the droplets while minimizing sample loss. In certain aspects, the assembly includes at least one droplet formation module, in which the module is configured to form droplets surrounded by an immiscible fluid. The assembly also includes at least one chamber including an outlet, in which the chamber is configured to receive droplets and an immiscible fluid, and in which the outlet is configured to receive substantially only droplets. The assembly further includes a channel, configured such that the droplet formation module and the chamber are in fluid communication with each other via the channel. In other aspects, the assembly includes a plurality of hollow members, in which the hollow members are channels and in which the members are configured to interact with a vessel. The plurality of hollow members includes a first member configured to expel a fluid immiscible with droplets in the vessel and a second member configured to substantially only droplets from the vessel. The assembly also includes a main channel, in which the second member is in fluid communication with the main channel. The assembly also includes at least one analysis module connected to the main channel.

An aspect of a chemical synthesis device according to the invention includes a substrate in which a channel for chemically synthesizing a plurality of fluids with each other is formed, and a wiring portion that is provided in the substrate, in which an electric resistance value of the wiring portion changes due to the wiring portion coming into contact with the fluids.

Fluidic systems, modules, and associated methods are generally described. In some embodiments, a fluidic system comprises a module which is configured such that fluid may flow therethrough with a relatively uniform time-averaged linear flow rate (i.e., the time-averaged flow rate that is perpendicular to the transverse cross-sectional area) and/or time-averaged flux across the transverse cross-sectional area of the module. Advantageously, such modules may behave in a way such that the time-averaged linear flow rate and/or time-averaged flux exhibits minimal or no dependence on the transverse cross-sectional area thereof. This may allow for modules to be scaled-up in a relatively facile manner by merely increasing the transverse cross-sectional area, which may eliminate or substantially reduce the need for other components of the module to be redesigned upon scale-up. In some embodiments, modules may be scaled-up in a manner that requires no or minimal chemical process adjustments.

Disclosed herein is a method for designing a liquid-liquid biphasic micro-fluidic flow channel reactor for continuous extraction or reactive extraction, where chemistry happens in one phase and the product is removed to the other. The method comprises developing random forest and symbolic genetic regression machine learning (ML) models to predict flow patterns and the mass transfer rate, respectively, using a combination of experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data and literature-mined data while accounting for the effects of solvent properties and channel diameter. This enables rapid prediction for efficient scale-up of microchannels to millichannels. To minimize the number of CFD simulations and maximize model accuracy, the method comprises using active learning techniques.

Disclosed herein are chemical actuators and ionic motive force transducers. The actuators and transducers are capable of converting an electrical stimulus into an ionic gradient within a reaction volume.