Azarmanesh Milad, Bawazeer Saleh, Mohamad Abdulmajeed A, Sanati-Nezhad Amir
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
Center for Bioengineering Research and Education, Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2019 Sep 3;9(1):12694. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49136-7.
Multiple Emulsions (MEs) contain a drop laden with many micro-droplets. A single-step microfluidic-based synthesis process of MEs is presented to provide a rapid and controlled generation of monodisperse MEs. The design relies on the interaction of three immiscible fluids with each other in subsequent droplet formation steps to generate monodisperse ME constructs. The design is within a microchannel consists of two compartments of cross-junction and T-junction. The high shear stress at the cross-junction creates a stagnation point that splits the first immiscible phase to four jet streams each of which are sprayed to micrometer droplets surrounded by the second phase. The resulted structure is then supported by the third phase at the T-junction to generate and transport MEs. The ME formation within microfluidics is numerically simulated and the effects of several key parameters on properties of MEs are investigated. The dimensionless modeling of ME formation enables to change only one parameter at the time and analyze the sensitivity of the system to each parameter. The results demonstrate the capability of highly controlled and high-throughput MEs formation in a one-step synthesis process. The consecutive MEs are monodisperse in size which open avenues for the generation of controlled MEs for different applications.
多重乳液（MEs）含有一个负载着许多微滴的液滴。本文介绍了一种基于微流控的单步合成多重乳液的方法，以实现单分散多重乳液的快速、可控生成。该设计依赖于三种互不相溶的流体在后续液滴形成步骤中的相互作用，以生成单分散的多重乳液结构。该设计位于一个微通道内，该微通道由交叉结和T形结的两个隔室组成。交叉结处的高剪切应力产生一个驻点，该驻点将第一个互不相溶的相分裂成四个射流，每个射流都被喷射成被第二相包围的微米级液滴。然后，在T形结处由第三相支撑所得结构，以生成和传输多重乳液。对微流控内多重乳液的形成进行了数值模拟，并研究了几个关键参数对多重乳液性质的影响。多重乳液形成的无量纲建模能够一次只改变一个参数，并分析系统对每个参数的敏感性。结果表明，在一步合成过程中能够高度可控且高通量地形成多重乳液。连续的多重乳液尺寸单分散，这为不同应用生成可控多重乳液开辟了道路。
