Fluidic based techniques at the micro and nano scales offer distinct advantages over traditional methods in manipulation, analysis, and synthesis of complex materials and structures. The key and versatility of these fluidic techniques rest on the particular behavior of fluids in small channels at low Reynolds numbers, and in contact with multiple interfaces. Microfluidic architectures that harness this behavior are becoming an important an emerging tool in materials manipulation and synthesis. This is a multi disciplinary field that encompasses aspects of chemistry/chemical engineering, physics, biomedicine/biomaterials and materials science. To expand this emerging field it is critical to foster interaction between researchers from these diverse disciplines and the larger materials community. There is no better opportunity to achieve this than on the Symposium KK on Micro and Nanofluidic Systems for Material Synthesis, Device Assembly, and Bioanalysis that will be held at the Spring 2010 MRS meeting. This symposium will bring together researchers, students, and industrial scientists from multiple disciplines to share their results and insight. While the theme of this symposium is materials centric we plan to devote a considerable portion of the program to fundamental aspects of drops and bubbles generation, advances in flow focusing, synthesis of particles and capsules, and the physics of complex fluidflow at the micro and nanoscale. This symposium fits well with your program interest in multiphase flow phenomena (particle/bubble/droplet dynamics), structured fluids (colloids, ferrofluids), and self and directed assembly of particles into functional devices. We request support from the NSF to partially cover travel and registration costs for oral and poster presenters, with particular emphasis in supporting young faculty and students.
Broader Impacts:
We believe that being able to partially support travel, and to cover the costs of attending the meeting will allow a wider, more representative population to attend and participate in the symposium and eventually, to strengthen representation in the area of materials development using micro and nano microfluidic systems. We will particularly, encourage research groups across the country to support participation of graduate and undergraduate students in the poster sessions, as a means of exposing students to a high level of research at an early age, and through these means, enhancing accessibility to research.
NSF Final Report Award No. CBET-1002600 Materials Research Society Symposium KK: "Micro- and Nanofluidic Systems for Material Synthesis, Device Assembly, and Bioanalysis" 2010 MRS Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA April 5 – 9, 2010 Symposium Organizers: Carlos J. Martinez - School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, 701 West Stadium Avenue West Lafayette, IN Sonia Grego - Center for Materials and Electronic Technologies, RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Rd, Research Triangle Park, NC Alberto Fernandez-Nieves - School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 837 State Street, Atlanta, Georgia Joao Cabral - Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK Summary of Objectives and Scope: Fluidic-based techniques at the micro- and nano-scales offer distinct advantages over traditional methods in manipulation, analysis and synthesis of complex materials and structures. The key and versatility of these fluidic techniques rest on the particular behavior of fluids in small channels at low Reynolds numbers, and in contact with multiple interfaces. Microfluidic architectures that harness this behavior are becoming an important and emerging tool in materials manipulation and synthesis. For example, microfluidic devices for drop and bubble generation are being used to synthesize nanoparticles and to generate monodispersed multi-material granules and core-shell structures. The integration of electric and magnetic fields into microfluidic devices have facilitated the fabrication of nanofibers via electro-spinning, and have enabled the precise control of drop coalescence and sorting. Microfluidic devices for bio-analysis are being actively developed since they offer the possibility of integrating bio-manipulation and detection into a small and affordable high performance package. Devices capable of high throughput biochemical assays for drug discovery, cell viability and bio-threat detection have been demonstrated. Despite these advances, many challenges remain, including, the need for a full understanding of the physics of fluids in such complex geometries as well as the influence of electric and magnetic fields. New techniques are necessary to fabricate devices with heterogeneous and biocompatible surfaces for bio-analysis. Finally, scale-up strategies are needed to translate these technologies into systems that can be implemented at an industrial scale. The goal of this symposium was to discuss material, engineering and physics aspects related to the use of micro- and nanofluidic devices for materials manipulation, synthesis and bio-analysis. Highlights of Research Activities and Findings (Please note: * indicates invited speakers; $ indicate student presenter) The first day morning session was devoted to the use and development of microfluidic devices for biological applications. Andrew de Mello* showed an impressive microfluidic setup for nanomaterials synthesis and PCR via drop manipulation. Brian Pluoffe developed a robust cell sorting technique using magnetic fields. The second part of the morning session moved to bioscreening and DNA manipulation. Ophir Vermesh$ and Michael Decre$ developed microfluidic approaches for cancer diagnostics and in-vitro studies of neural networks, respectively. The afternoon session focused on crystallization and phase behavior. Seth Fraden*, Seila Selmovic$, and Daria Khvostichenko presented a comprehensive study of protein crystallization in microfluidic devices. The discussion then shifted to bubble formation in microfluidic devices. Eugenia Kumacheva* and Mohan Edirisinghe* presented their respective efforts in bubble generation. Carlos Martinez presented the first report of processing preceramic polymers in microfluidic devices. The second day started with a presentation by Ignacio Gonzalez-Loscertales* on the experimental characterization of whipping instabilities of charged microjets in liquid baths. Greg Rutledge* followed with a presentation of his group efforts to understand block co-polymer self-assembly at the nanoscale in a cylindrical confinement. Steve Wereley* showed a new optoelectric technique to manipulate colloidal particles in microfluidic channels and form new material assemblies. Louis Tribby$, Aijie Han$ and Lixin Dong$ presented their studies of nanomaterials flow in nanofluidic systems. The afternoon session started with a talk by David Weitz* on his group efforts to develop drop technology to carryout enzymatic reactions, cell encapsulation, and sorting. Francisco Higuera* provided an in depth discussion of the physics of Taylor cone formation in electrohydrodynamic devices. Shikka work was particularly impressive since it permitted the stretching of free flowing DNA by manipulating the continuous fluid flow rates along two perpendicular channels. Several new techniques to generate submicron drops were presented by Patrick Tabeling*. Finally, Ho Cheung Shum$ presented his outstanding work on the formation of polymer and lipid-bilayers from double emulsions. The poster session was hosted that night with eleven posters mostly from graduate students and postdoctoral associates. The final day of the symposium started with a presentation by Orlin Velev* in which he demonstrated microfluidic devices that can switch their shape, stiffness and colors depending on polydimethylsiloxane composition and the flow of index-matched solutions. Zhuojie Wu$ talked about a new technique to fabricate silicon nanochannels. Slobodan Damnjanovic$ demonstrated microfluidic devices with microcavities that can be used to trap-cells for bioanalysis. Patrick Doyle*, Jennifer Lewis* and David Baah$ showed their efforts using stop-flow lithography to generate particles and colloidal grains.
