Channel shape effects on the solution-flow characteristics and the liquid/liquid extraction efficiency in polymer microchannel chips.

A polymer microchannel chip with a symmetrical or unsymmetrical zigzag-side-walled structure was fabricated by an imprinting method, and applied to study shape effects on solution flow characteristics as well as on the liquid/liquid extraction efficiency of an aluminium(III) chelate complex (Al-DHAB: DHAB = o,o'-dihydroxyazobenzene) in a microchannel chip. In an unsymmetrical zigzag-side-walled channel chip (us-channel), an oil/water interface was sinusoidal, while that in a symmetrical zigzag-side-walled channel chip (s-channel) was flat as long as the observation was made under an optical microscope. It was demonstrated that the efficiency of the water-to-oil (1-butanol) extraction of Al-DHAB in the microchannel was governed by the contact time between the two phases. As the most important results, furthermore, the extraction efficiency was higher in the us-channel, as compared with that in the s-channel, owing to the sinusoidal liquid/liquid interfacial structure and, therefore, to the high interfacial area between the two phases.