Microfluidic Chips For The Synthesis Of CaCO₃Sphere And Single Cell Calcium Analysis

Microfluidics is the science and technology that manipulates small amount of liquid in structures with dimensions of micrometers, which is also an interdisciplinary field developed rapidly in the recent decades. Owing to the existence of size effect, liquid in the microchannels possesses numbers of completely different properties compared to that in macroscale laboratory techniques. These specialties have further promoted the application of microfluidics in areas like the preparation of nano-materials and bioanalysis. This thesis includes three chapters.Chapter Ⅰ features the development of microfluidics, the current research frontiers of microreactors and the applications of microfluidic chips in single cell manipulation and analysis.In Chapter Ⅱ, the research progress for CaCO3hollow spheres preparation is briefly introduced first. Then we proposed our new method for this material preparation in microchip. By applying a chip that can maintain steady liquid-gas interface, we can synthesize hollow sphere CaCO3particles continuously. The experiment shows that the features of the prepared particles are of good monodispersity. Since this material has been proved to be an ideal drug carrier in former articles, we also tested its biocompatibility, which proved its potential for applications in biological environment.In Chapter Ⅲ, we first summarized the application of microfluidic platforms in the stimulation of intracellular calcium. Based on these early models and we proposed a new microfluidic device for cell trapping. By integrating the Ag/AgCl electrodes to the chip, this device could further be used for electrical stimulation. The experiment shows that, intracellular calcium could be monitored by using the Laser Confocal Microscopy and further stimulated electrically in this trap. The results indicate that chip might be applicable in single cell manipulation, stimulation and analysis.