The Effect of Non-Uniform Magnetic Field on the Efficiency of Mixing in Droplet-Based Microfluidics: A Numerical Investigation

Abstract

Achieving high efficiency and throughput in droplet-based mixing over a small characteristic length, such as microfluidic channels, is one of the crucial parameters in Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) applications. One solution to achieve efficient mixing is to use active mixers in which an external power source is utilized to mix two fluids. One of these active methods is magnetic micromixers using ferrofluid. In this technique, magnetic nanoparticles are used to make one phase responsive to magnetic force, and then by applying a magnetic field, two fluid phases, one of which is magneto-responsive, will sufficiently mix. In this study, we investigated the effect of the magnetic field’s characteristics on the efficiency of the mixing process inside droplets. When different concentrations of ferrofluids are affected by a constant magnetic field, there is no significant change in mixing efficiency. As the magnetic field intensifies, the magnetic force makes the circulation flow inside the droplet asymmetric, leading to chaotic advection, which creates a flow that increases the mixing efficiency. The results show that the use of magnetic fields is an effective method to enhance the mixing efficiency within droplets, and the efficiency of mixing increases from 65.4 to 86.1% by increasing the magnetic field intensity from 0 to 90 mT. Besides that, the effect of ferrofluid’s concentration on the mixing efficiency is studied. It is shown that when the concentration of the ferrofluid changes from 0 to 0.6 mol/m3, the mixing efficiency increases considerably. It is also shown that by changing the intensity of the magnetic field, the mixing efficiency increases by about 11%.