Surfactants in microfluidics

The rapid development of microfluidic techniques in the last two decades has revolutionized chemical and biological research. This technology has enabled scientists in a manifold of research fields to analyze and synthesize specimens with hither to unreached speed and precision. The number of applications is enormous, reaching from the manipulation of DNA, proteins and enzymes through the growth of multi-cellular organisms to the high output production of micro- and nanoparticles with precisely tailored material and geometrical properties. Maybe even more important is that microfluidic devices also allow for experiments to be carried out that provide fundamental insight into complex "in vivo"-processes such as the dynamics of blood cells, enzymes and proteins, proton diffusion in cells or pattern formation of vesicles. Moreover, microfluidic systems may be used to study transport phenomena in porous media; which are crucial for e.g. oil recovery processes where oil is extracted from sand fields or porous rock.
In this thesis we investigated the effect of surfactants microfluidic migration phenomena. We thereby discover that dependent on the microfluidic systems surfactants can have various roles.