Modeling and high performance simulation of electrophoretic techniques in microfluidic chips

Electrophoretic separations comprise a group of analytical techniques such as capillary zone electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, isotachophoresis, and free flow electrophoresis. These techniques have been miniaturized in the last years and now represent one of the most important applications of t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Kler, Pablo Alejandro, Berli, Claudio Luis Alberto, Guarnieri, Fabio Ariel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/76140
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/76140
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Electrophoresis
Microfluidic Chips
Numerical Model
Petsc-Fem
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2
Descripción
Sumario:Electrophoretic separations comprise a group of analytical techniques such as capillary zone electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, isotachophoresis, and free flow electrophoresis. These techniques have been miniaturized in the last years and now represent one of the most important applications of the lab-on-a-chip technology. A 3D and time-dependent numerical model of electrophoresis on microfluidic devices is presented. The model is based on the set of equations that governs electrical phenomena, fluid dynamics, mass transport, and chemical reactions. The relationship between the buffer characteristics (ionic strength and pH) and surface potential of channel walls is taken into consideration. Numerical calculations were performed by using PETSc-FEM, in a Python environment, employing high performance parallel computing. The method includes a set of last generation preconditioners and solvers, especially addressed to 3D microfluidic problems, which significantly improve the numerical efficiency in comparison with typical commercial software for multiphysics. In this work, after discussing two validation examples, the numerical prototyping of a microfluidic chip for two-dimensional electrophoresis is presented.