Upscaling production of droplets and magnetic particles with additive manufacturing
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 17 August 2021
Issue publication date: 22 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Monodisperse microfluidic emulsions – droplets in another immiscible liquid – are beneficial to various technological applications in analytical chemistry, material and chemical engineering, biology and medicine. Upscaling the mass production of micron-sized monodisperse emulsions, however, has been a challenge because of the complexity and technical difficulty of fabricating or upscaling three-dimensional (3 D) microfluidic structures on a chip. Therefore, the authors develop a fluid dynamical design that uses a standard and straightforward 3 D printer for the mass production of monodisperse droplets.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors combine additive manufacturing, fluid dynamical design and suitable surface treatment to create an easy-to-fabricate device for the upscaling production of monodisperse emulsions. Considering hydrodynamic networks and associated flow resistance, the authors adapt microfluidic flow-focusing junctions to produce (water-in-oil) emulsions in parallel in one integrated fluidic device, under suitable flow rates and channel sizes.
Findings
The device consists of 32 droplet-makers in parallel and is capable of mass-producing 14 L/day of monodisperse emulsions. This convenient method can produce 50,000 millimetric droplets per hour. Finally, the authors extend the current 3 D printed fluidics with the generated emulsions to synthesize magnetic microspheres.
Originality/value
Combining additive manufacturing and hydrodynamical concepts and designs, the authors experimentally demonstrate a facile method of upscaling the production of useful monodisperse emulsions. The design and approach will be beneficial for mass productions of smart and functional microfluidic materials useful in a myriad of applications.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Conflicts of interest: There are no conflicts to declare.
The authors acknowledge the support from Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), Future Energy System (FES) at the University of Alberta, and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The author Peichun Amy Tsai holds a Canada Research Chair in Fluids and Interfaces and thankfully acknowledges Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada via the Discovery and Accelerator grants.
Citation
Mottin, D., Ho, T.M. and Tsai, P.A. (2021), "Upscaling production of droplets and magnetic particles with additive manufacturing", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 27 No. 9, pp. 1693-1699. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-12-2020-0320
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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