Principal Investigator Cullen Buie
Project Website http://web.mit.edu/lemi/rsc_microfluidics.html
Microfluidics typically involves study of low Reynolds number fluid mechanics in micro scale (characteristic dimension of ~100 µm) flow channels. Conventionally microfluidics seeks to develop 'lab on a chip' devices to replace bulky and expensive chemical and biological analysis techniques in life sciences.
However, at the Laboratory for Energy and Microsystems Innovation (LEMI) we are interested in investigating the use of microfluidic tools for controlled experimental characterization of energy systems. For example, we are currently developing dielectrophoretic (DEP) tools to manipulate and characterize bacteria for energy applications.