Molecular Transport between Two Phases in a Microchannel.

Today, microfabricated devices (microchips) have attracted considerable attention because of their vast applicability and versatility. Most published reports utilizing microchips to separate and detect analysis of interest have concentrated on using electrokinetically driven separation schemes. Investigations from a different standpoint have been few in number. However, microchips offer advantages concerning the scale merits of microspace, such as a short diffusion distance and the high interface-to-volume ratio, the specific interface area; we thus considered that they are an ideal tool to study molecular transport between two different phases, i.e., solvent extraction. In the present paper, we report on the first demonstration using a microchip to study molecular between two phases