Micro-mixing of highly viscous bio-samples observed with a miniature wireless video sensor

Micro-mixing of a highly viscous bio-sample with water using orbital shaking and micro-channels is considered. Existing methods mix bio-samples by only shaking micro-wells or by specially designed micro-stirrers which are ineffective or inapplicable for highly viscous materials. Our method mixes a viscous bio-samples with water in micro-wells using orbital shaking plus an innovative block which divides the micro-wells into two compartments and is built in with micro-channels. The mixing method with the block in the micro-well is efficient compared with mixing in the micro-well without the block. In this paper, the design of the block is presented, and the flow of the bio-samples in the micro-channel under orbital shaking is analyzed. Furthermore, a miniature wireless video sensor system is used to observe the mixing process which verifies the model of flow in the analysis. Finally, X-ray diffraction experiments on the mixing monoolein with water are presented, in which X-ray diffraction is used to evaluate the results of mixing which confirm that the proposed approach is effective.