Capillary-assisted fabrication of biconcave polymeric microlenses from microfluidic ternary emulsion droplets

In this study, a simple capillary-based approach for producing biconcave polymeric microlenses with uniform size and shape from ternary emulsion droplets is presented. Monodisperse ternary emulsion droplets (0.6-4.0 nL) are produced which contain a photocurable segment of an acrylate monomer and two non-curable segments of silicone oil (SO) by using a microfluidic sheath-flowing droplet generator on a glass chip. The curvature radius of the interfaces separating the droplet segments, as well as the droplet size, and production rate can be flexibly varied by changing the flow conditions of the organic and aqueous phases. Subsequently, off-chip suspension photopolymerization yields non-spherical polymeric microparticles with two spherical concave surfaces templated by two SO segments at random positions. By ultraviolet light irradiation of ternary droplets with two SO segments trapped by the interior wall of a cylindrical microcapillary (internal diameter: 130 μm), biconcave microlenses can be produced with two spherical concave surfaces with a common lens axis. The produced lenses are suitable for use as optical diverging lenses.