Solvent Shifting Approach for Droplet Generation in a Microfluidic Device

A novel approach for microfluidic droplet generation via―solvent shifting‖ is presented in this paper. In a co-flowconfiguration with a jet of ethanol/oil mixturesurrounded by water flow, the lateral diffusion leads to aphase separation and formation of oil microdroplets.Due to the solutal Marangoni effect microdropletsmigrate inward and gather at the center of the channel.For high concentrations of oil the population ofmicrodroplets is so high that they can merge and producebigger droplets. If the mixture contains ۱۰% oil, thediameter of the produced droplets is within the range ۱۰-۳۰ μm. The droplet size varies with the flow rate of thejet. Overall, we show that it is practical to generatedroplets of different sizes by solvent shifting in amicrofluidic setup.

کلیدواژه ها:

droplet generation ، microfluidics ، solventshifting ، ouzo effect ، Marangoni convection