Microfluidic Gradient Generator

prusaprinters

<p>This is a macro version of the microfluidic gradient generator technique (and geometry) presented in Cabaleiro 2020, doi:10.1016/j.cej.2019.122742. Ref. the supplemental data (3d models are included there). This could be promising for educational use with resin printers. I say macro since I printed mine at 200% in X and Y and 400% in Z.&nbsp;</p><p>I don't like it for the FFF / macro / demonstration use. My advice to anyone else working on this with an FFF process is to use the “avoid crossing perimeters” setting in slicer, and go layer-by-layer hunting for travel moves that could screw up these small channels. I believe somewhere in the left-hand channel there was probably a string that was holding things up during my tests, and it occurred in both the 2-way and my hacked-together 3-way model (this indicates to me that it is a string in the same place on both, but could also be fundamental to the geometry).&nbsp;</p><p><strong>I made an open-channel version of my previous capillary toy to use as an educational aid instead of this design, which relies entirely on diffusion in the paper towel (the capillary pump) to create the gradient</strong>. <a href="https://www.printables.com/model/214151-capillary-toy-gradient-generator">https://www.printables.com/model/214151-capillary-toy-gradient-generator</a></p><figure class="media"><oembed url="https://youtu.be/qZq-X_FpOjU"></oembed></figure>