Multiphase capillarics for structurally pre-programmed sequential and parallel operations of high and low cohesion liquids
- 1McGill University
Abstract
Capillaric circuits (CCs) enable pre-programmed liquid handling through self-filling and passive valving governed by capillary forces, eliminating the need for external pumps and actuators. However, CCs optimized for high cohesion liquids (HCL) such as water are intrinsically unsuitable for programmed flow control of low cohesion liquids (LCL) such as oils and solvents because the high surface free energy needed for capillary flow of HCL results in uncontrolled, complete wetting by LCL. Here, we introduce a library of multiphase components including phase-to-phase valves (P2PV), hydro-pneumatic relays (HPR) and multiphase domino valves (MDVs) that collectively enable CCs to concomitantly process HCLs and LCLs. P2PVs use a pre-filled HCL to valve immiscible LCLs (e.g. oil) by confining the LCL, and upon triggering, hydraulically entrain it. To prevent uncontrolled mixing between miscible LCLs (e.g. ethanol) and the HCL, HPRs with an air gap and air waste are added to the P2PV. MDVs are further added and enable preprogrammed, sequential delivery of LCL and HCL by multiphase microfluidic chain reactions. Multiphase liquid processing is applied to automated, on-chip lipid nanoparticle (LNP) manufacturing, illustrating the potential of multiphase CCs.
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BibTeX
@misc{kim2026multiphase,
title = {{Multiphase capillarics for structurally pre-programmed sequential and parallel operations of high and low cohesion liquids}},
author = {G. Kim and L. A. Huynh and M. L. Shen and Y. Morocz and A. Ng and D. Juncker},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.08.749925},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.08.749925v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Multiphase capillarics for structurally pre-programmed sequential and parallel operations of high and low cohesion liquids
AU - G. Kim
AU - L. A. Huynh
AU - M. L. Shen
AU - Y. Morocz
AU - A. Ng
AU - D. Juncker
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.08.749925
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.08.749925v1
AB - Capillaric circuits (CCs) enable pre-programmed liquid handling through self-filling and passive valving governed by capillary forces, eliminating the need for external pumps and actuators. However, CCs optimized for high cohesion liquids (HCL) such as water are intrinsically unsuitable for programmed flow control of low cohesion liquids (LCL) such as oils and solvents because the high surface free energy needed for capillary flow of HCL results in uncontrolled, complete wetting by LCL. Here, we introduce a library of multiphase components including phase-to-phase valves (P2PV), hydro-pneumatic relays (HPR) and multiphase domino valves (MDVs) that collectively enable CCs to concomitantly process HCLs and LCLs. P2PVs use a pre-filled HCL to valve immiscible LCLs (e.g. oil) by confining the LCL, and upon triggering, hydraulically entrain it. To prevent uncontrolled mixing between miscible LCLs (e.g. ethanol) and the HCL, HPRs with an air gap and air waste are added to the P2PV. MDVs are further added and enable preprogrammed, sequential delivery of LCL and HCL by multiphase microfluidic chain reactions. Multiphase liquid processing is applied to automated, on-chip lipid nanoparticle (LNP) manufacturing, illustrating the potential of multiphase CCs.
ER -