My expertise lies in fabricating and surface functionalizing micro/nano structured microfluidic components. During my PhD, I have studied mass transfer and performance of serpentine microchannels for micro gas chromatography applications. The kind of questions that I answered were, 1) how to maximize radial mass transfer and minimize axial dispersion in gases, 2) how to functionalize walls uniformly with polymers, and 3) how to avoid artifacts due to wall interactions. Chemicals of interest for separation included organophosphate and organosulfur compounds. My PhD work has greatly contributed to the microGC research by providing design rules on how to build microGC columns.

For my future research directions, I will apply the techniques developed during my PhD study to bio-applications. My research will focus on combining top-down fabrication approaches with surface biofunctionalization techniques to create near-ideal mass transfer conditions for biomicrofluidics.

The questions I will address in my future research include,

1)How to increase mass transfer, minimize dispersion in biomicrofluidics?

2)How to avoid wall interactions, i.e. reduce non-specific binding of biomolecules?

3)How to functionalize walls uniformly keeping biomolecular activity?

4)How to coat channel walls with biomolecules rather than polymeric films?

References:

1) Radadia A.D., Cao L., Jeong H.K., Shannon M.A., Masel R.I., A 3D Micromixer Fabricated with Dry Film Resist, IEEE MEMS, 361-364, 2007.

2) Radadia A.D., Shannon M.A., Masel R.I., New Column Designs for MicroGC, TRANSDUCERS, pg. 2011-2014, 2007.

3) Bae B.H., Yeom J., Radadia A.D., Masel R.I., Shannon M.A., A Fully-Integrated MEMS Preconcentrator for Rapid Gas Sampling, TRANSDUCERS, pg. 1497-1500, 2007.

4) Radadia A.D., Microfluidics for Bio- and Chemical Reactions, Encyclopedia of Micro and Nanofluidics (In Print).

5) Yeom J., Oh I., Field C., Radadia A., Ni Z., Bae B., Han J., Masel R.I., Shannon M.A., Enhanced toxic gas detection using a MEMS preconcentrator coated with the metal organic framework absorber, IEEE MEMS 2007 (In Print).

6) Lee C.Y., Sharma R., Radadia A.D., Masel R.I., Strano S.S., An On-Chip Microfluidic Gas Chromatograph Enabled by a Non-covalently Functionalized Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Sensor Array, Angewandte Chemie Intl. (Accepted).

7) Radadia A.D., Jerrell J., Shannon M.A., Masel R.I., Microcolumns for Organo Phosphonate and Sulfur Compound Separation, Analytical Chemistry (Accepted).