Wishsanuruk Wechsatol

Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) is a microfluidic technology used for manipulating liquid droplets at microliter to nanoliter scale. EWOD has the ability to facilitate the accurate manipulation of liquid droplets, i.e., transporting, dispensing, splitting, and mixing. In this work, EWOD fabrication with suitable and affordable materials is proposed for creating EWOD lab-on-a-chip platforms. The EWOD platforms are applied for the diagnosis of early mortality syndrome (EMS) in shrimp by utilizing the colorimetric loop-mediated isothermal amplification method with pH-sensitive xylenol orange (LAMP–XO) diagnosis technique. The qualitative sensitivity is observed by comparing the limit of detection (LOD) while performing the LAMP–XO diagnosis test on the proposed lab-on-a-chip EWOD platform, alongside standard LAMP laboratory tests. The comparison results confirm the reliability of EMS diagnosis on the EWOD platform with qualitative sensitivity for detecting the EMS DNA plasmid concentration at 10² copies in a similar manner to the common LAMP diagnosis tests.

A micro-scale model of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) involving the mass transfer together with the electrochemical reaction, the electron and ion transports through the respective spherically shaped electron- and ion-conducting particles inside the electrodes was mathematically developed. Couples of useful dimensionless parameters were introduced in order to represent the characteristics of the cell. The predicted cell performance was showed according to various operating and design conditions. The effects of micro-scale electrode geometry on the cell performance were also taken into account. Parametric study according to the volumetric fraction of ionic and electronic conducting particles was conducted in order to examine the effects of operating conditions on the cell overpotentials. The study results substantiate the fact that SOFC overpotential could be effectively decreased by increasing the operating temperature as well as operating pressure. This present study reveals the working mechanisms of SOFC at the microscale level, while demonstrating the use of micro-scale relations to enhance the SOFC performance. The accuracy of the presented model was validated by comparing to already existing experimental results from the available literatures.