Levenstein, MA orcid.org/0000-0002-2309-3743, Bawazer, LA, Mc Nally, CS et al. (4 more authors) (2016) A Reproducible Approach to the Assembly of Microcapillaries for Double Emulsion Production. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 20 (10). 143. ISSN 1613-4982
Abstract
Double emulsions attract considerable interest for their potential utility in applications as diverse as drug delivery, contrast agents, and compartmentalizing analytes for fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Microfluidic platforms provide a particularly elegant approach to generating these structures, but the construction of devices to provide reproducible and stable production of double emulsions remains challenging. PDMS-based systems require specialized surface treatments that are difficult to implement and lack long-term stability, and current glass microcapillary systems, while offering some advantages, lack flexible and reproducible methods for capillary alignment. This article describes a microcapillary-based approach that addresses these key challenges. Our approach utilizes translational stage elements and alignment end caps that are fixed in place once configured, rather than tightly fitting capillaries. This new approach enables alignment to within ± 10 µm and allows greater flexibility in choosing the dimensions of the capillary, which contributes to the size and stability of formation of the double emulsion. Importantly, it also allows the user to compensate for the deviations from ideal shape that occur in pulled glass capillaries, which has been a source of failure with previous methods. A detailed description of the critical design and operational parameters that affect double emulsion generation in these capillary microfluidic devices is provided.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Keywords: | Droplet Microfluidics; Double Emulsions; Microcapillaries; Micropipette Pulling; Droplet Breakup; Dripping-to-Jetting Transition |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces & Interfaces (iETSI) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemistry (Leeds) > Inorganic Chemistry (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/H005374/1 EPSRC EP/I001514/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Sep 2016 10:50 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:14 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-016-1806-2 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10404-016-1806-2 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:105199 |