How to Prevent Bubbles in Microfluidic Channels

Microfluidic technology has aroused wide applications, including analytical science, diagnostic technology, and micro-/nanofabrication. However, bubbles in microfluidic channels always bring out adverse impacts such as cell damage and device malfunction. To prevent bubble formation, numerical simulation and experiments were integrated to reveal the effect of the factors including the internal structure of the channel, internal wettability, and liquid flow rate. On one hand, the simulation results reveal that bubble formation can be prevented by these mentioned factors, the weight of which can be provided by a logistic regression model. In addition, the raised equilibrium equations can efficiently explain the influence of these factors on bubble prevention. On the other hand, the validity of the simulation was further verified by the prevention of bubbles in the water-flowing microchannels. Therefore, this work provides a promising strategy to prevent bubble formation in microchannels, which has wide applications in microfluidic systems.

Automated summary

Microfluidic technology has wide applications in analytical science, diagnostic technology, and micro-/nanofabrication. To prevent bubble formation in microchannels, numerical simulation and experiments were integrated to analyze the factors affecting bubble prevention, such as channel structure, wettability, and liquid flow rate. Results showed that these factors could prevent bubble formation and were validated through experiments in water-flowing microchannels, offering a promising strategy for preventing bubbles in microfluidic systems.