Title: Microfluidics without walls

Biography:

Vincent Marichez is the CEO of Qfluidics, a startup in microfluidics developing a liquid-tube technology initially born in the laboratories of the university of Strasbourg, France. He first graduated in 2013 from ECPM (Ecole de Chimie, Polymeres et Materiaux de Strasbourg, France) where he studied Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. He then joined the laboratory of non-equilibrium complex systems for a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Thomas M. Hermans where he studied mechanical chiral resolution (using shear flows) and dissipative supramolecular self-assembly at ISIS (Institut de Science et d Ingenierie Supramoleculaire de Strasbourg). His PhD was immediately followed by a Post-Doc in 2018 in the same laboratory where he could assist the early development of the very first liquid tube which led 1 year after to the creation of Qfluidics in January 2019

Abstract

In microfluidics, where fluidic channels are scaled down to the micrometer, flow rates are limited by solid walls, due to friction and high pressure drop. Many methods to tackle this issue have been explored, from hydrophobic coatings, through atomically flat channels, to electrowetting in order to reduce solid-wall interactions. Here we propose a new approach, where wall-less aqueous liquid channels are stabilized by a quadrupolar magnetic field that acts on a surrounding immiscible magnetic liquid. This liquid tube is self-healing, uncloggable and it can deliver a very low-shear flow due to the liquid-liquid interface. This “wall-less” approach allows us to transport viscous and shear sensitive liquids without damaging them while allowing basic fluidic operations (valving, mixing, pumping,etc.) by reconfiguring in real time the liquid tube with an external magnetic field. We believe that liquid tubes could pave the way to reconfigurable low pressure nanofluidics.