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Issue 17, 2009
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Characterizing dispersion in microfluidic channels

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Abstract

Dispersion or spreading of analyte bands is a barrier to achieving high resolution in microfluidic separations. The role of dispersion in separations is reviewed with emphasis on metrics, sources and common principles of analysis. Three sources of dispersion (a) inhomogeneous flow fields, (b) solute wall interactions and (c) force fields normal to channel walls are studied in detail. Microfluidic and nanofluidic applications to capillary electrophoresis, chromatography and field-flow fractionation, that are subject to one or more of these three physical processes under standard, unintentional or novel operating conditions, are discussed.

Graphical abstract: Characterizing dispersion in microfluidic channels

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Publication details

The article was received on 19 Dec 2008, accepted on 27 May 2009 and first published on 12 Aug 2009


Article type: Critical Review
DOI: 10.1039/B822948C
Citation: Lab Chip, 2009,9, 2537-2550
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    Characterizing dispersion in microfluidic channels

    S. Datta and S. Ghosal, Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 2537
    DOI: 10.1039/B822948C

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