Rapid preparation of monodispersed droplets with confluent laminar flows

Author

Nisisako, Takasi ; Torii, Toru ; Higuchi, Toshiro

Author_Institution

Dept. of Precision Eng., Univ. of Tokyo, Japan

fYear

2003

fDate

19-23 Jan. 2003

Firstpage

331

Lastpage

334

Abstract

We study the formation of micro droplets in confluent two-phase flows in a microfluidic system. Instability at the interface of two immiscible liquids undergoing laminar flow generates micro droplets of highly uniform size. Under high shear stress the droplets form rapidly, and more than 2000 droplets can be prepared of similar size. Droplet size can be controlled by varying the flow conditions. Also, the effect of tension at the interface is studied by comparing results from PMMA/glass devices. Monodisperse polymeric microspheres were successfully obtained by polymerization of prepared monomer droplets.

Keywords

drops; laminar flow; microfluidics; two-phase flow; PMMA/glass devices; confluent laminar flows; confluent two-phase flows; droplet size; interface instability; interface tension effects; micro droplets; microfluidic system; monodispersed droplets; polymerization; shear stress; Biomembranes; Chemical industry; Filters; Glass; Liquids; Microchannel; Microfluidics; Polymers; Production; Size control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2003. MEMS-03 Kyoto. IEEE The Sixteenth Annual International Conference on

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7744-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2003.1189753

Filename

1189753