Design and Evaluation of Three-Dimensional Zigzag Chaotic Micromixers for Biochemical Applications

Zigzag is a classic microchannel configuration with unique modifiable geometric parameters (bending angles and overlapped regions) compared with other serpentine geometries. It provides an additional potential for application-oriented micromixer design. In this work, diverse novel three-dimensional (3D) zigzag micromixer configurations were proposed and investigated based on classic zigzag planar geometries. These micromixers consist of misaligned inlet junction parts and 3D zigzag mixing parts with various bending angles and overlapped regions. The mixing performance, mixing mechanism, and pressure drop characteristics of these micromixers were investigated by numerical simulation. Furthermore, selected 3D micromixer geometries were fabricated into polyimide-based microfluidic chips by efficient and low-cost manufacturing techniques. The Villermaux–Dushman experiment has been conducted in these customized chips, which exhibits promising prospects in biochemical applications.