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Rapid generation of highly uniform droplets using asymmetric microchannels fabricated on a single crystal silicon plate
conference contribution
posted on 2012-10-12, 10:04 authored by Goran VladisavljevicGoran Vladisavljevic, Isao Kobayashi, Mitsutoshi NakajimaA microfluidic device can be identified by the fact that it has one or more channels with at least one
dimension less than 1 mm. The most common types of microfluidic devices are: (i) soft microfluidic devices
fabricated in elastomeric materials such as PDMS by soft lithography [1], (ii) glass devices manufactured in
quartz glass or glassy polymers such as PMMA by etching or micromachining [2], and (iii) microchannel (MC)
array devices fabricated in silicon by photolithography and wet-etching or deep-reactive ion etching processing
[3]. Microfluidic devices can be used for capillary electrophoresis [4], liquid-liquid extraction [5],
immunoassays [6], cellomics [7], proteomics [8], DNA analysis [9], blood rheology measurements [10],
microreactors [11], droplet formation [2], etc. The soft microfluidic devices such as T-junctions and flow
focusing devices are suitable for rapid generation of monodispersed droplets with a coefficient of variation (CV)
in a dripping regime of generally less than 3 %. Although the frequency of drop production can be as high as
7000 Hz, the overall productivity in terms of volume flow rate of the disperse phase is very low because the
droplets are formed from a single channel. Silicon MC array devices are much more suitable for large-scale
applications because the total number of microchannels on a chip can be hundreds of thousands.
The aim of this work was to investigate the generation of uniform droplets at high production rates using
novel asymmetric MC array microfabricated on a silicon plate [12]. Monodispersed emulsion droplets are much
more favourable both in fundamental studies and practical applications. Emulsion appearance and rheology,
stability against Oswald ripening and creaming, and the suitability of droplets as templates to the production of
solid micro- and nano-particles are strongly influenced by their particle size distribution.
History
School
- Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
- Chemical Engineering
Citation
VLADISAVLJEVIC, G.T., KOBAYASHI, I. and NAKAJIMA, M., 2007. Rapid generation of highly uniform droplets using asymmetric microchannels fabricated on a single crystal silicon plate. IN: Proceedings of the 1st UK-China Particle Technology Forum, Leeds, UK, 6pp.Publisher
UK-China Particle Technology ForumVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2007Notes
This is an invited keynote lecture delivered at the first UK-China Particle Technology Forum, 2-3 April 2007, University of Leeds, UK.Language
- en