D2O based microfluidics for in vitro ir cell analysis

We present the use of D2O (deuterium oxide) as a liquid medium for infrared analysis of biological cells in microfluidic devices. In contradiction to standard buffer liquids, D2O shows a low infrared absorption in the range of 3.3 to 3.6 µm wavelength, which makes it suitable for infrared analysis methods in that range. We illustrate the performance by the measurement of CH2 and CH3 stretch vibrations of phospholipid bilayer of the cell membrane of yeast, in a microfluidic chip.