chemical sciences - adaptive sensors group
project page
Name:
Dr. Sonia Ramírez-GarcíaContact details
X152
School of Chemical Science
S202
National Centre for Sensor Research
Dublin City university
Glasnevin
Dublin 9
Qualifications
1999-2003: PhD Cum Laude in Chemical Science "Development and characterisation of new rigid conducting composites for their application in sensors and biosensors compatible with organic solvents" under the supervision of Prof. Salvador Alegret and Dr. Francisco Céspedes, University Autònoma of Barcelona, and Prof. Robert Forster, Dublin City University
1997-1999: Master in Analytical Chemistry research, University Autònoma of Barcelona
1993-1997: Degree in Chemistry in the University Autònoma of Barcelona
Languages:
-Catalan: fluent spoken and written
-Spanish: fluent spoken and written
-English: fluent spoken and written
-French: high level spoken and written
-German: low levels spoken and written
Project Summary
Microfluidic systems are a technology in constant evolution. They basically consist of small chips with two or more channels that have at least one of their dimensions in the micrometer scale. The pumps commonly used in these systems are much larger compared to the scale of the chip. Recently new miniaturized pumps based in piezoelectric, thermal, shape memory alloy, and electrostatic actuation mechanisms have been developed. However, these pumps require large amounts of energy which make them not suitable for their integration in field deployable platforms.
In the present work we pursue new pumping systems that can be integrated in microfluidic systems and are ultra-low power consuming. By using ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMC), new biomimetic built-in pumps are currently being fabricated and characterised in our laboratory. Figure 1 shows preliminary work of two actutators based on polypyrrole and nafion deforming a polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) tube.
Figure 1. Sequence showing the deformation of a PDMS tube using two Ppy-Nafion actuators. This figure is included in "Internet-scale sensing: are biomimetic approaches the answer?" Sonia Ramírez-García, Dermot Diamond, J. Intel. Mat. Syst. Struct., in press.
The first generation of this type of pump has been constructed in our laboratory ("Biomimetic, low power pumps based on soft actuators", Sonia Ramírez-García, Dermot Diamond, Submitted to LOAC). A picture of the prototype constructed is shown in figure 2.
Figure 2. Picture of the prototype of the pump constructed using PDMS tubes and Ppy-Nafion actuators.
Figure 3 illustrates a pumping sequence where the actuators are excited using a square wave potential of +-3 V and 3 s amplitude.
Figure 3. Sequence of pictures taken at different stages of actuation
Efforts are currently being made to integrate the actuators in the actual tube to follow a more biomimetic approach.
Publications
Development of a new photopolymerizable membrane for monochloroacetate sensitive potentiometric sensors, Carles Puig-Lleixà, Sonia Ramírez-García, Cecília Jiménez, Jordi Bartrolí, Anal. Chim. Acta, 386 (1999) 13-19
Development of Conducting Composite Materials for Electrochemical Sensing in Organic Media, Sonia Ramírez-García, Francisco Céspedes, Salvador Alegret, Electroanalysis, 13 (2001) 529-535
Carbon composite electrodes: surface and electrochemical properties, Sonia Ramírez-García, Salvador Alegret, Francisco Céspedes, Robert J. Forster, Analyst, 127 (2002) 1512-1519.
Carbon Composite Microelectrodes: Charge Percolation and Electroanalytical Performance, Sonia Ramírez-García, Salvador Alegret, Francisco Céspedes, Robert J. Forster, Anal. Chem., 76 (2004) 503-512
Internet-Scale Sensing: Are Biomimetic Approaches the Answer?, Sonia Ramírez-García, Dermot Diamond, J. Intel. Mat. Syst. Struct., in press
Biomimetic, low power consuming micropumps based on soft actuators for microfluidic systems, Sonia Ramírez-García, Dermot Diamond, Sensors and Actuators A, in press
Autonomous Analytical Platform entirely constructed with soft materials, Sonia Ramírez-García, Martina O'Toole, Dermot Diamond, in preparation
