The researchers expect their design would then be adaptable to a wide variety of chemical or biological applications. Professor Henderson said the collaboration is important, because it takes the expertise of research chemists and puts it in a form that can be used by almost anyone. We don't have to be chemists ourselves. There are several other advantages to doing chemistry or biology on a chip. Less material means lower cost.
Smaller systems can also run much faster.
Henderson estimates that a reaction that typically takes 30 minutes in a lab might take only a few seconds on the chemistry chip. The analysis will closely resemble what happens in a full-scale chemical laboratory, but it will simply happen on a microscopic scale. We're going to have microvalves, micro pumps, reserviors, and controllers. We already have so many MEMS components. However, the same technology could be used for many other applications.