ADVANCES IN MICROFLUIDICS
When the field of microfluidics emerged in the early 1990s, it was primarily focused
on the development of analytical microdevices. Since then, microfluidics has expanded
its influence into virtually every branch of science and engineering. There are many
driving forces behind this explosive growth. To name a few:
• Scaling properties afforded by miniaturization are desirable for many
applications. For example, enhanced mass transfer and heat dissipation
enable faster chemical separations without sacrificing separation
performance....