Separations-on-a-chip? Scientists at Liverpool Put a Different Spin on Things!

We have all read about lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices (or if we hadn’t already, we will now after reading this issue of Chromatography Today!) and how they may offer the possibility of miniaturising analytical instruments. However one thing continues to let them down and that is how do you move fluids around the chips? The pumping mechanisms within these devices can be very complex and difficult to implement reproducibly as it commonly uses external pumps or high voltages.

Scientist at the University of Liverpool are developing a new innovative simple approach to this problem in developing a lab-on-a-CD where liquids are moved around a CD by centrifugal force that is generated when the disc spins, and so eliminating the need for internal moving parts and voltage potentials like those needed for many other LOCs.