Faster droplet production by delayed surfactant-addition in two-phase microfluidics to form thermo-sensitive
Sebastian Seiffert1, Fabian Friess2, Andreas Lendlein2
1Helmholtz Virtual Institute, "Multifunctional Biomaterials for Medicine", Kantstr. 55, D-14513 Teltow, Germany; Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustr. 3, D-14195 Berlin, Germany; Soft Matter and Functional Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, D-14109 Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
Microfluidic droplet templating produces monodisperse particles of well controllable sizes, but this is limited by the necessity to operate microfluidic devices at low flow rates in the dripping regime. Here, the per-channel rate of droplet production could be substantially increased by delayed surfactant addition as applied and verified for microfluidic production of N-isopropylacrylamide based microgels.
