For instance a microfluidic chip is already designed for normal viscous fluids, and now how it can be implemented for highly viscous fluids e.g. blood or liquid biopsy samples. There is also one buffer inlet. It's not recommended to do some pre processing treatment, the sample should be introduced directly.
Kindly do recommend some articles if there is any. I will be much pleased for your response.
Hi Muhsin Ali
I guess the microfluidic design you aim for consists of a side-by-side configuration (usually y-channel, as you don't want a rigorous mixing between the two fluids); one inlet is for the more viscous fluid, and the other is reserved for the buffer. If so, the mismatch between the viscosity of the two fluid will affect the location of the interface. In summary, for the same flow rate of the inlets, the interface will not be exactly in the middle; it tends toward the side occupied by lower viscosity fluid. Please refer to this article for more details:
Article Multiplexed microfluidic viscometer for high-throughput comp...
Most of the time, the viscosity difference of the inlets are not significant, so this subtle point is overlooked (for your case it's significant). However, in certain cases, even a slight difference causes some significant effects, as it is pointed out in this article:
Article Detecting thermal asymmetry in microfluidics for sensor appl...
Hi Muhsin,
It's about the application. What do you exactly want to do? If the final goal is having the same mixing, for example, you should note that viscosity affects the hydrodynamic resistance of the liquid (channel). So, the more viscous fluid needs more pressure to flow in the channel. On the other hand, if you supply fluids with a syringe pump then there is no worry about the viscosity. The hydrodynamic resistance or viscosity comes to play when you drive fluids with a pressure pump. In that case, you can design the channel (setting width height and length) such that you can have the same flow rate as for the less viscous fluid.
Muhsin Ali
Since there is no information provided about your chip or experimental design, precise/useful suggestion could not be provided to your query.
However, as mentioned in above posts, you cannot simply use any microfluidics device for any purpose. You have to design the device according to requirements and calibrate the specifics. If your device is not designed to be used for highly viscous fluidics, there are chances of it to not function well. Flow can be maintained/calibrated by pressure pumps however, the factors like physical bonding, leakage or blockage cannot. So please go through your experimental design before actually doing the experiment if it is critical. For just testing, you can try and evaluate.
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