Introduction

The ability to mix minute quantities of fluids is critical in a range of recent and emerging techniques in engineering, chemistry and life sciences, with applications as diverse as inkjet printing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, specialty and hazardous chemical manufacturing, DNA analysis and disease diagnosis.

The multidisciplinary nature of this field – intersecting engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, microtechnology and biotechnology – means that the community of engineers and scientists now engaged in developing microfluidic devices has entered the field from a variety of different backgrounds.

About the Book

Micromixers is uniquely comprehensive, in that it deals not only with the problems that are directly related to fluidics as a discipline (aspects such as mass transport, molecular diffusion, electrokinetic phenomena, flow instabilities, etc.) but also with the practical issues of fabricating micromixers and building them into microsystems and lab-on-chip assemblies.

With practical applications to the design of systems vital in modern communications, medicine and industry, this book has already established itself as a key reference in an emerging and important field.

The 2nd edition includes coverage of a broader range of fabrication techniques, additional examples of fully realized devices for each type of micromixer, and a substantially extended section on industrial applications, including recent and emerging applications.

Key Features

- Introduces the design and applications of micromixers for a broad audience across chemical engineering, electronics and the life sciences, and applications as diverse as lab-on-a-chip, inkjet printing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and DNA analysis

- Helps engineers and scientists to unlock the potential of micromixers by explaining both the scientific (microfluidics) aspects and the engineering involved in building and using successful microscale systems and devices with micromixers

- The author's applied approach combines experience-based discussion of the challenges and pitfalls of using micromixers, with proposals for how to overcome them