Bifurcating mixers and methods of their use and manufacture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10076730-B2
Application number	US-201615522720-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 24, 2016
Priority date	Jan 6, 2016
Publication date	Sep 18, 2018
Grant date	Sep 18, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed herein are fluidic mixers having bifurcated fluidic flow through toroidal mixing elements. The mixers operate, at least partially, by Dean vortexing. Accordingly, the mixers are referred to as Dean Vortex Bifurcating Mixers (“DVBM”). The DVBM utilize Dean vortexing and asymmetric bifurcation of the fluidic channels that form the mixers to achieve the goal of optimized microfluidic mixing. The disclosed DVBM mixers can be incorporated into any fluidic (e.g., microfluidic) device known to those of skill in the art where mixing two or more fluids is desired. The disclosed mixers can be combined with any fluidic elements known to those of skill in the art, including syringes, pumps, inlets, outlets, non-DVBM mixers, heaters, assays, detectors, and the like.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A mixer configured to mix at least a first liquid and a second liquid, the mixer comprising an inlet channel leading into a plurality of toroidal mixing elements arranged in series and including channels having a hydrodynamic diameter of about 20 microns to about 2 mm, wherein the plurality of toroidal mixing elements includes a first toroidal mixing element downstream of the inlet channel, and a second toroidal mixing element in fluidic communication with the first toroidal mixing element via a first neck region, and wherein the first toroidal mixing element defines a first neck angle from 90 to 150 degrees between the inlet channel and the first neck region.

2. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the first neck region has a length of 0.05 mm or greater.

3. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the mixer is sized and configured to mix the first liquid and the second liquid at a Reynolds number of less than 1000.

4. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the mixer includes two or more mixers in parallel, each mixer having a plurality of toroidal mixing elements.

5. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the first toroidal mixing element and the second toroidal mixing element define a mixing pair, and wherein the mixer includes a plurality of mixing pairs, and wherein each mixing pair is joined by a neck region at a neck angle.

6. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the first toroidal mixing element has a first leg of a first length and a second leg of a second length; and wherein the second toroidal mixing element has a first leg of a third length and a second leg of a fourth length.

7. The mixer of claim 6 , wherein the first length is greater than the second length.

8. The mixer of claim 6 , wherein the third length is greater than the fourth length.

9. The mixer of claim 6 , wherein the ratio of the first length to the second length is about equal to the ratio of the third length to the fourth length.

10. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the first toroidal mixing element has a first leg of a first impedance and a second leg of a second impedance; and wherein the second toroidal mixing element has a first leg of a third impedance and a second leg of a fourth impedance.

11. The mixer of claim 10 , wherein the first impedance is greater than the second impedance.

12. The mixer of claim 10 , wherein the third impedance is greater than the fourth impedance.

13. The mixer of claim 10 , wherein the ratio of the first impedance to the second impedance is about equal to the ratio of the third impedance to the fourth impedance.

14. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the mixer includes 2 to 20 toroidal mixing elements in series.

15. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the mixer includes 1 to 10 pairs of toroidal mixing elements in series.

16. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the toroidal mixing elements have an inner radius of about 0.1 mm to about 2 mm.

17. A method of mixing a first liquid with a second liquid, comprising flowing the first liquid and the second liquid through a mixer according to any of the preceding claims to produce a mixed solution.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the mixer is incorporated into a microfluidic device that includes a plurality of mixers, and the method further comprises flowing the first liquid and the second liquid through the plurality of mixers to form the mixed solution.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the first liquid comprises a nucleic acid in a first solvent.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the second liquid comprises lipid particle-forming materials in a second solvent.

21. The method of claim 17 , wherein the mixed solution includes particles produced by mixing the first liquid and the second liquid.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the particles are selected from the group consisting of lipid nanoparticles and polymer nanoparticles.

23. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the first neck angle is a shortest angle formed in relation to a center of the first toroidal mixing element defined by lines passing through a center of an entrance channel and a center of an exit channel of the first toroidal mixing element.

24. The mixer of claim 1 , wherein the first toroidal mixing element includes two leg channels that define a circumference of a toroid between an inlet and an outlet of the first toroidal mixing element.

Assignees

• Univ British Columbia

Inventors

• Wild Andre
• Leaver Timothy
• Taylor Robert James

Classifications

• B01F2215/0431

  Numerical size values, e.g. diameter of a hole or conduit, area, volume, length, width, or ratios thereof · CPC title

• B01F2215/0459

  Numerical values of dimensionless numbers, i.e. Re, Pr, Nu, transfer coefficients · CPC title

• B01F2215/0422

  Numerical values of angles · CPC title

• B01F5/0656

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F2005/0623

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic