Fayetteville, AR (July 19, 2010) – SFC Fluidics, LLC has received a $73,213 Phase IIB Small Business Technology Transfer award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue development of a chip-scale device for liquid chromatography. SFC Fluidics has received previous awards for this project from the NSF totaling $649,923.

Liquid chromatography (LC) is a mature technology often used in chemical, biological, and medical laboratories to separate and purify complex mixtures such as human blood serum, saliva and proteins. SFC Fluidics is developing a fully-functional, miniaturized, circular liquid chromatographic system with on-chip separations. The ePump^®, a patent-pending electrochemical pumping system already developed by SFC Fluidics, will be used as the mechanism to move liquid through the chip. SFC Fluidics' ePump is a tiny microfluidic pump with no moving parts and low power requirements, which can be designed in virtually any size or shape. Together, the chip with its integrated ePump will be small enough to fit easily in the hand and will require a sample size of only one drop.

For this project, the Company is building a specific type of LC system called Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC). This technique separates chemicals contained in samples based on their relative molecular size as compared to the material it must pass through. SFC Fluidics will produce a complete, modular system equipped with its own pumping system and SEC chip which can produce a representative, pure chemical sample for further use. The system will be small, portable, and designed for laboratory use as well as field use.