Application of Microfluidics in Chemical Engineering

Microfluidics is the science and technology that involve the study of behaviors of fluids, controlled fluid manipulations, and the design of such devices or systems that can reliably perform such tasks in microchannels with typical dimensions of tens to hundreds of micrometers. For over two decades, applications of microfluidics haven been extensively explored at the interface of biology, chemistry, and engineering [1]. Microfluidics has been broadly employed to miniaturize analytical methods and chemical/biological processes, because it promises significant increase in analysis speed, reduction in sample volume and reagent consumption (10-9 to 10-18 L), and enhanced system performance and functionality by integrating different components onto individual devices [2,3]. These applications are usually called micro total analysis systems (μTAS) [4] or lab on a chip (LOC) [5].