Entry Date:
February 12, 2007

Dynamic Control of Separation Environment

Principal Investigator T Hatton

Co-investigator Kenneth Smith


elf-assembling surfactant and polymer micellar systems that respond to externally applied stimuli such as temperature, light, oxidation potential, etc., will be used to tailor the separation environment in capillary chromatographic and microfluidic reaction/separation devices. We will explore the use of spatially and temporally varying irradiation patterns, temperature distributions, and/or electrode potentials along the length of microfabricated microfluidic channels for the dynamic control of the distribution of solubilization capacities and interaction affinities in the devices. This strategy will be used to optimize staged or chromatographic-type separation operations for the high throughput measurement of important classes of intracellular molecules extracted from cells and tissues.