Patent ID: 7314567

Claim:
Method for mixing-free transport of a heterogeneous liquid in microchannels, wherein in the method a first heterogeneous liquid ( 14 ) flows through a first channel ( 22 ) and, at a first connecting location (meeting chamber 10 ), meets a second ( 24 ) channel carrying a second liquid ( 16 ), wherein the two liquids ( 14 , 16 ) are selected such that they cooperate to cause a phase separation, the first and second liquids ( 14 , 16 ), at the connecting location (meeting chamber 10 ), are converted into a two-phase flow (droplet chain 12 ) of alternating volume fractions of the first and second liquids ( 14 , 16 ) by formation of non-equilibrium phases in particular due to surface structures, deposits or films, geometries and/or flow velocities, and this two-phase flow (droplet chain 12 ) passes through a transmission channel ( 26 ) extending from the connecting location (meeting chamber 10 ) of the first channel ( 14 ) with the second channel ( 24 ), and the two-phase flow (droplet chain 12 ), after this transmission and at another connecting location (separation chamber 28 ) of the transmission channel ( 26 ) with a third and a fourth channel ( 30 , 32 ), is spontaneously divided, in particular due to surface structures, deposits or films, geometry and/or flow velocities, into the third and fourth channels ( 30 , 32 ) as the liquid flows that existed prior to the separation.