Patent ID: 11904318
Assignee: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B  C | IPC A  B  C  G

Claim 18:
19. A method for ion exchange between the droplet and the electrolyte solution in an auxiliary channel comprising:
flowing water-in-oil droplets through at least one main microchannel of the microfluidic device of claim 1; and
applying a voltage bias across the permselective membranes for a period of time so that ions are injected into the droplet from an auxiliary channel at the enriched portion of the droplet and ions are simultaneously ejected from the microdroplet into another auxiliary channel at the ion depleted portion of the droplet, wherein the permselective membranes are cation-selective and cation exchange occurs between the droplet and the electrolyte solution in an auxiliary microchannel or the permselective membranes are anion-selective and anion exchange occurs between the droplet and the electrolyte solution in an auxiliary microchannel.