Method and device for receiving a droplet

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10006889-B2
Application number	US-201414898833-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2014
Priority date	Jun 19, 2013
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

The present invention relates to a droplet receiver, comprising a receptacle for receiving a droplet, a fluid conduit connected at a first end thereof to the droplet receptacle thereby providing a course within which the droplet received in the droplet receptacle moves, the conduit at its distal end in communication with a reservoir, and a fluid layer wetting the internal walls of the receptacle and conduit in such a way as permit reception of the droplet without loss of the received droplet due to wetting of the internal receptacle and conduit walls.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A droplet receiver comprising:
a receptacle for receiving a droplet;
a fluid conduit connected at a first end thereof to the droplet receptacle, thereby providing a course within which the droplet received in the droplet receptacle can move, the fluid conduit being at its distal end in fluid communication with a reservoir;
a fluid layer wetting the internal walls of the receptacle and conduit in such a way as to permit reception of the droplet without loss of the received droplet due to wetting of the internal receptacle and conduit walls; and
a pressure reduction unit configured to apply a reduced pressure to draw the received droplet into the reservoir.

2. The droplet receiver according to claim 1 , wherein the reservoir further comprises a wetting unit configured to wet the internal receptacle and conduit walls.

3. The droplet receiver according to claim 1 , wherein the droplet receiver is mounted on a support movable at least in an upward and downward direction, and wherein the uppermost position permits to contact a pendant droplet.

4. The droplet receiver according to claim 1 , wherein the fluid layer is a liquid layer exhibiting a flow.

5. The droplet receiver according to claim 1 , further comprising a fluid feeding unit.

6. The droplet receiver according to claim 5 , wherein the fluid feeding unit comprises a fluid bath for submerging the receptacle when not receiving a droplet.

7. The droplet receiver according to claim 6 , further comprising a valve at the reservoir and a second conduit in fluid communication with the valve, to direct a plug flow of a received droplet to a further analysis or separation process.

8. The droplet receiver of claim 7 , wherein the reservoir comprises a fluid overflow conduit for reverting fluid back to the fluid feed.

9. The droplet receiver according to claim 6 , wherein the fluid bath is provided with an inlet and an outlet for the circulation of the fluid.

10. The droplet receiver according to claim 1 , wherein the internal space of the receptacle is shaped such that a sectional area thereof is reduced towards the conduit.

11. A device for selective solvent evaporation from a liquid feed, the feed comprising one or more components diluted in at least a first solvent or a solvent blend, the device comprising:
a first tubular vessel having a distal end or a channel suitable for the formation of a droplet of a first volume, at an inflow rate r 1 , at the tip or in the lumen of the first tubular vessel;
a heating unit configured to subject the droplet to solvent evaporation at an evaporation rate r 2 to evaporate at least part of the first solvent or solvent blend, and to accumulate the components in the feed in the droplet during the evaporation process at an accumulation rate r 3 , to obtain a concentrated feed volume in the droplet; and
comprising a receptacle for receiving the droplet, a fluid conduit connected at a first end thereof to the droplet receptacle, thereby providing a course within which the droplet received in the droplet receptacle can move, the fluid conduit being at its distal end in fluid communication with a reservoir, a fluid layer wetting the internal walls of the receptacle and conduit in such a way as to permit reception of the droplet without loss of the received droplet due to wetting of the internal receptacle and conduit walls, and a pressure reduction unit configured to apply a reduced pressure to draw the received droplet into the reservoir.

12. The device according to claim 11 , wherein the device comprises an adjustment unit configured to adjust one or more of pressure, temperature and gas flow rate at the gas/liquid interface of the droplet.

13. The device according to claim 11 , further comprising:
an automated system configured to control one or more of r 1 , r 2 , r 3 and the movement of the droplet receiver.

14. The device according to claim 13 , wherein the automated system comprises at least one or more sensors, and/or one or more actuators.

15. The device according to claim 13 , further comprising a comparison module configured to correlate sensor data to a set point value, and deliver an adjustment signal to an actuator to adjust the magnitude of the parameter controlled by the actuator, wherein the actuator controls evaporation rate r 2 and the droplet receiver movement.

16. The device according to claim 15 , wherein the automated control system comprises a machine vision unit that sequentially acquires one or more images of the droplet, processes the acquired images to determine one or more droplet parameters; and communicates the parameters to the comparison module.

17. The device according to claim 11 , further comprising a dilution module configured to dilute the received concentrated sample droplet in a second solvent or solvent blend to obtain a re-diluted sample.

18. A method of receiving a droplet, comprising:
(i) providing a droplet receiver comprising:
a receptacle for receiving a droplet;
a fluid conduit connected at a first end thereof to the droplet receptacle, thereby providing a course within which the droplet received in the droplet receptacle can move, the fluid conduit being at its distal end in fluid communication with a reservoir;
a fluid layer wetting the internal walls of the receptacle and conduit in such a way as to permit reception of the droplet without loss of the received droplet due to wetting of the internal receptacle and conduit walls; and
a pressure reduction unit configured to apply a reduced pressure to draw the received droplet into the reservoir; and

(ii) contacting and transferring the droplet into the receptacle.

19. The method according to claim 18 , wherein contacting the droplet comprises moving the receptacle in a predetermined direction and at a predetermined speed.

20. The method according to claim 18 , further comprising:
applying a reduced pressure to the received droplet to transport the droplet into the reservoir in fluid communication with the droplet receptacle.

Assignees

• Univ Leiden

Inventors

• Schoonen Jan-Willem
• Lindenburg Peter
• Vulto Paul
• Hankemeier Thomas

Classifications

• G01N30/7233

  interfaced to liquid or supercritical fluid chromatograph (interfaces in general for introducing or extracting samples to be analysed with specially adapted mass spectrometer, see H01J49/04) · CPC title

• G01N30/12 Primary

  by evaporation · CPC title

• G01N1/34

  Purifying; Cleaning {(processes or apparatus for extracting or separating nucleic acids from biological samples C12N15/1003)} · CPC title

• G01N1/4022

  by thermal techniques; Phase changes · CPC title

• G01N30/64

  Electrical detectors · CPC title