Automated liquid-liquid extraction by pneumatic recirculation on a centrifugal microfluidic platform

Anal Chem. 2012 Aug 21;84(16):6939-43. doi: 10.1021/ac301421k. Epub 2012 Aug 6.

Abstract

In this technical note, a liquid-liquid extraction technique was performed using pneumatic liquid recirculation on a centrifugal microfluidic device. Non-contact pneumatic pumping enabled a multi-cycle liquid-liquid extraction process using aqueous iodine in a potassium iodide solution and hexadecane while requiring a minimal amount of space on the device. The extraction process was completely automated on the device following sample introduction and required only 50 s for each extraction cycle. The pumping rate achieved during liquid recirculation was 120 ± 10 μL/min. A recycling process such as the one demonstrated would be difficult to implement in a conventional centrifugal microfluidic system.