Micro mixer with fast diffusion

A concept for micromixing of liquid is introduced, and its feasibility is demonstrated. The mixer allows fast mixing of small amounts of two liquids and is applicable to microliquid handling systems. The mixer has a channel for the liquid, an inlet port for the reagent, a 2.2-mm*2-mm*330- mu m mixing area, and 400 micronozzles (15 mu m*15 mu m) through with a reagent is injected into the sample liquid. The resulting microplumes greatly increase the contact surface between the two liquids and hasten the speed of the mixing by diffusion. The fabrication process is extremely simple. The mixing is complete within a few seconds; a homogeneous state of mixing is reached in 1.2 s when the total volume injected is 0.5 mu l and the injection flow rate is 0.75 mu l/s.< >