| abstract |
The invention relates to a method for transferring heterogeneous liquids in microchannels without the occurrence of mixing, according to which a heterogeneous liquid flow (14) is autonomously portioned, conveyed over a distance and is then autonomously recombined. During portioning, individual volumes of a second liquid (16), which can be completely but not necessarily homogeneous, are introduced between successive partial volumes of the heterogeneous liquid flow (14). Without these measures, partial volumes of the heterogeneous liquid (14) that are in contact with one another would mix together. Therefore, by separating the individual partial volumes, the invention now enables these partial volumes, thus the heterogeneous liquid (14), to be conveyed over long distances without the occurrence of mixing. In order to process the partial volumes of the heterogeneous liquid (14), it is then necessary again to separate the liquid flow (12) from alternately successive partial volumes of both liquids (14, 16) so that two flows are formed again of which one flow is the same as the heterogeneous starting liquid and the other is the same as the second liquid. An overall solution for the conveyance of a heterogeneous liquid without the occurrence of mixing and without the use of expensive fractionators is made possible by virtue of the fact that both processes can autonomously proceed by a self-organization of the phases. |