This article describes the process of formation of droplets and bubbles in microfluidic T-junction geometries. At low capillary numbers break-up is not dominated by shear stresses: experimental results support the assertion that the dominant contribution to the dynamics of break-up arises from the pressure drop across the emerging droplet or bubble. This pressure drop results from the high resistance to flow of the continuous (carrier) fluid in the thin films that separate the droplet from the walls of the microchannel when the droplet fills almost the entire cross-section of the channel. A simple scaling relation, based on this assertion, predicts the size of droplets and bubbles produced in the T-junctions over a range of rates of flow of the two immiscible phases, the viscosity of the continuous phase, the interfacial tension, and the geometrical dimensions of the device.

http://ichf.pong.pl/i/publications/29.pdf

Formation of droplets and bubbles in a microfluidic T-junction-scaling and mechanism of break-up.

Double emulsions are highly structured fluids consisting of emulsion drops that contain smaller droplets inside. Although double emulsions are potentially of commercial value, traditional fabrication by means of two emulsification steps leads to very ill-controlled structuring. Using a microcapillary device, we fabricated double emulsions that contained a single internal droplet in a core-shell geometry. We show that the droplet size can be quantitatively predicted from the flow profiles of the fluids. The double emulsions were used to generate encapsulation structures by manipulating the properties of the fluid that makes up the shell. The high degree of control afforded by this method and the completely separate fluid streams make this a flexible and promising technique.

/pdf/monodisperse-double-emulsions-generated-from-a-2mkl984v4i.pdf

Monodisperse Double Emulsions Generated from a Microcapillary Device

Fundamental and applied research in chemistry and biology benefits from opportunities provided by droplet-based microfluidic systems. These systems enable the miniaturization of reactions by compartmentalizing reactions in droplets of femoliter to microliter volumes. Compartmentalization in droplets provides rapid mixing of reagents, control of the timing of reactions on timescales from milliseconds to months, control of interfacial properties, and the ability to synthesize and transport solid reagents and products. Droplet-based microfluidics can help to enhance and accelerate chemical and biochemical screening, protein crystallization, enzymatic kinetics, and assays. Moreover, the control provided by droplets in microfluidic devices can lead to new scientific methods and insights.

/pdf/reactions-in-droplets-in-microfluidic-channels-22iig0bcxm.pdf

Reactions in Droplets in Microfluidic Channels

This critical review summarizes developments in microfluidic platforms that enable the miniaturization, integration, automation and parallelization of (bio-)chemical assays (see S. Haeberle and R. Zengerle, Lab Chip, 2007, 7, 1094–1110, for an earlier review). In contrast to isolated application-specific solutions, a microfluidic platform provides a set of fluidic unit operations, which are designed for easy combination within a well-defined fabrication technology. This allows the easy, fast, and cost-efficient implementation of different application-specific (bio-)chemical processes. In our review we focus on recent developments from the last decade (2000s). We start with a brief introduction into technical advances, major market segments and promising applications. We continue with a detailed characterization of different microfluidic platforms, comprising a short definition, the functional principle, microfluidic unit operations, application examples as well as strengths and limitations of every platform. The microfluidic platforms in focus are lateral flow tests, linear actuated devices, pressure driven laminar flow, microfluidic large scale integration, segmented flow microfluidics, centrifugal microfluidics, electrokinetics, electrowetting, surface acoustic waves, and dedicated systems for massively parallel analysis. This review concludes with the attempt to provide a selection scheme for microfluidic platforms which is based on their characteristics according to key requirements of different applications and market segments. Applied selection criteria comprise portability, costs of instrument and disposability, sample throughput, number of parameters per sample, reagent consumption, precision, diversity of microfluidic unit operations and the flexibility in programming different liquid handling protocols (295 references).

/pdf/microfluidic-lab-on-a-chip-platforms-requirements-3q5qdadspt.pdf

Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip platforms: requirements, characteristics and applications

Current strategies of regenerative medicine are focused on the restoration of pathologically altered tissue architectures by transplantation of cells in combination with supportive scaffolds and biomolecules. In recent years, considerable interest has been given to biologically active scaffolds which are based on similar analogs of the extracellular matrix that have induced synthesis of tissues and organs. To restore function or regenerate tissue, a scaffold is necessary that will act as a temporary matrix for cell proliferation and extracellular matrix deposition, with subsequent ingrowth until the tissues are totally restored or regenerated. Scaffolds have been used for tissue engineering such as bone, cartilage, ligament, skin, vascular tissues, neural tissues, and skeletal muscle and as vehicle for the controlled delivery of drugs, proteins, and DNA. Various technologies come together to construct porous scaffolds to regenerate the tissues/organs and also for controlled and targeted release of bioactive agents in tissue engineering applications. In this paper, an overview of the different types of scaffolds with their material properties is discussed. The fabrication technologies for tissue engineering scaffolds, including the basic and conventional techniques to the more recent ones, are tabulated.

/pdf/polymeric-scaffolds-in-tissue-engineering-application-a-2sbenjc1po.pdf

Polymeric scaffolds in tissue engineering application: a review

A microfluidic device having both hydrophobic and hydrophilic components is exploited for production of multiple-phase emulsions. For producing water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) dispersions, aqueous droplets ruptured at the upstream hydrophobic junction are enclosed within organic droplets formed at the downstream hydrophilic junction. Droplets produced at each junction could have narrow size distributions with coefficients of variation in diameter of less than 3%. Control of the flow conditions produces variations in internal/external droplet sizes and in the internal droplet number. Both W/O/W emulsions (with two types of internal droplets) and oil-in-water-in-oil emulsions were prepared by varying geometry and wettability in microchannels.

Controlled production of monodisperse double emulsions by two-step droplet breakup in microfluidic devices.

Synthesis of Monodisperse Bicolored Janus Particles with Electrical Anisotropy Using a Microfluidic Co‐Flow System

A method is given for generating droplets in a microchannel network. With oil as the continuous phase and water as the dispersed phase, pico/nanoliter-sized water droplets can be generated in a continuous phase flow at a T-junction. The channel for the dispersed phase is 100 μm wide and 100 μm deep, whereas the channel for the continuous phase is 500 μm wide and 100 μm deep. For given experimental parameters, regular-sized droplets are reproducibly formed at a uniform speed. The diameter of these droplets is controllable in the range from 100–380 μm as the flow velocity of the continuous phase is varied from 0.01 m s−1 to 0.15 m s−1.

Droplet formation in a microchannel network

In this study, we report the mass production of monodisperse emulsion droplets and particles using microfluidic large-scale integration on a chip. The production module comprises a glass microfluidic chip with planar microfabricated 16–256 droplet-formation units (DFUs) and a palm-sized stainless steel holder having several layers for supplying liquids into the inlets of the mounted chip. By using a module having 128 cross-junctions (i.e., 256 DFUs) arranged circularly on a 4 cm × 4 cm chip, we could produce droplets of photopolymerizable acrylate monomer at a throughput of 320.0 mL h−1. The product was monodisperse, having a mean diameter of 96.4 µm, with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.3%. Subsequent UV polymerization off the module yielded monodisperse acrylic microspheres at a throughput of ∼0.3 kg h−1. Another module having 128 co-flow geometries could produce biphasic Janus droplets of black and white segments at 128.0 mL h−1. The product had a mean diameter of 142.3 µm, with a CV of 3.3%. This co-flow module could also be applied in the mass production of homogeneous monomer droplets.

Takasi Nisisako

Papers

Controlled production of monodisperse double emulsions by two-step droplet breakup in microfluidic devices.

Synthesis of Monodisperse Bicolored Janus Particles with Electrical Anisotropy Using a Microfluidic Co‐Flow System

Droplet formation in a microchannel network

Microfluidic large-scale integration on a chip for mass production of monodisperse droplets and particles

Novel microreactors for functional polymer beads