A Microsecond Mixer for Measuring Kinetics

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the development of a microfluidic, turbulent rapid mixer, capable of completely mixing two liquid solutions within microseconds. Targeted applications are measurements of very fast kinetics of chemical and biological reaction systems (e.g. protein and nucleic acid folding) that cannot be studied by rapid single molecule measurements, or chemical relaxation techniques (e.g. T- and P-jump). The instrument will have superior time resolution compared to any other available mixing instrument, is sparing of valuable reactant solutions, is compatible with biological molecules, can be modified for quench flow operation, and the format is compatible with sophisticated spectroscopic measurements. Other major considerations are the convenience of the operation, the reliability and robustness of the measurements, the simultaneous measurement of several experimental parameters (e.g. fluorescence intensity, lifetimes, polarization and spectral dispersion). This instrument opens up opportunities for kinetic experiments in a new time scale.