Abstract

Acidity Control in Microreactors for Life Science Applications

Divya Balakrishnan, PhD Student, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology

Acidity control plays a major role in the manipulation and assembly of bio-molecules like nucleotides, peptides or sugars. These molecules have a large combinatorial diversity, which is usually handled in microarrays that are molecular libraries where each of the spots hold one chemical species. Miniaturization is the route to increase the number of these spots, but in the other hand the miniaturized control of the acidity is a challenge. So far, optically triggered acid labile groups have been the ones providing a control to fabricate sophisticated microarrays. We propose a new way to control the acid in miniaturized environments through electrochemically driven reactions. We demonstrate that is possible to achieve acidity control in a multiplexed microreactor chip in miniaturized volumes similar to the dimensions of a microarray. We show a large pH range, in which the contrast can be maintained for a long time. Quantitative control of the acidity is also possible. The stability of the set pH and the multiplexed control of acidity in the microreactors is presented and the conditions of reversibility for long lasting cycles have also been investigated.