Evaporation Phenomenon in Micro Polymerase Chain Reaction (μPCR) System and a Possible Electrowetting Solution

Abstract

It is found that the sample leakage and evaporation are two major drawbacks in the stationary micro polymerase chain reaction (μPCR) system. Experiments were performed to analyze the evaporation phenomenon and to find a possible solution. Electrochemical method was used to investigate the residual solution inside the PCR chamber. Results indicate that the system covered with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) membrane may hold the methylene blue (MB) solution inside the chamber intact for at least 500 s at 26°C, whereas the remaining aqueous solution is only 30% at 91.2°C. An electrowetting method is proposed for stationary μPCR, where a complete filling of the solution inside the reaction chamber is important for trace DNA amplification and detection.

Keywords:

• μPCR
• methylene blue
• evaporation
• electrochemical
• electrowetting

Acknowledgements

This work was jointly supported by the National 973 Program (2007CB310504) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (91023040).