A microfluidic chip for formation and collection of emulsion droplets utilizing active pneumatic micro-choppers and micro-switches

Chia Wei Lai, Yen Heng Lin, Gwo Bin Lee*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

The formation of emulsification droplets is crucial for many industrial applications. This paper reports a new microfluidic chip capable of formation and collection of micro-droplets in liquids for emulsion applications. This microfluidic chip comprising microchannels, a micro-chopper and a micro-switch was fabricated by using micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technology. The microfluidic chip can generate uniform droplets with tunable sizes by using combination of flow-focusing and liquid-chopping techniques. The droplet size can be actively fine-tuned by controlling either the relative sheath/sample flow velocity ratios or the chopping frequency. The generated droplets can be then sorted to a specific collection area utilizing an active pneumatic micro-switch formed with three micro-valves. Experimental data showed that the olive oil and sodium-alginate (Na-alginate) droplets with diameters ranging from 3 μm to 70 μm with a variation less than 14% is successfully generated and collected. The development of this microfluidic system can be promising for emulsion, drug delivery and nano-medicine applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)749-756
Number of pages8
JournalBiomedical Microdevices
Volume10
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Chopper
  • Emulsification
  • Emulsion
  • MEMS
  • Micro-switch
  • Microfluidics

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