Synthesizing Microcapsules with Controlled Geometrical and Mechanical Properties with Microfluidic Double Emulsion Technology

Abstract

Using lithography-based microfluidic technology, we produce monodisperse single-core microcapsules with UV-cured TPGDA (triprophylene glycol diacrylate) shells. We show that the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of the microcapsules can be predicted on a quantitative basis and tuned by varying the flow conditions. Shell thicknesses are varied by changing the flow rates of the inner or intermediate phases, according to mass conservation constraint. Off-centering of the core with respect to the shell is controlled by varying the shell phase viscosity. The mechanical properties of the capsules can be varied by changing the flow conditions and are quantitatively predicted by a numerical simulation. The simulation moreover provides a correct qualitative description of their rupture. As a whole, the work carried out in the present paper shows, on a quantitative basis, that microfluidic technology allows to finely control the geometrical and mechanical properties of microcapsules generated on chip. The level of control we reach here is not accessible, by far, to conventional technologies. Combined with parallelization, the present work opens routes toward the production of novel families of monodisperse microcapsules with tunable properties.

Rapid preparation of highly reliable PDMS double emulsion microfluidic devices

“…Double emulsions have enormous potential for a wide range of applications including vesicle preparation, 1 drug delivery, 2 chemical extraction, 3 materials synthesis, [4][5][6][7][8] and the controlled release of encapsulated actives. 9 They can also be analysed in commercial fluorescenceactivated cell sorting (FACS) machines, where the requirement for an aqueous carrier fluid makes the technique incompatible with simple water-in-oil single emulsions with this technique.…”

Nanoparticle synthesis in microreactors

“…Microfluidic devices with two consecutive T-junctions (Okushima et al, 2004;Nisisako et al, 2005), or two flow-focusing regions (Seo et al, 2007;Chen et al, 2009b;Hennequin et al, 2009), with local surface modification, were designed for the formation of double emulsions. A coaxial microcapillary device has also been developed by Utada et al (2005) microcapillary technique.…”

Mikrotröpfchen in Mikrofluidiksystemen: eine Technik für Entdeckungen in der Chemie und Biologie

“…[208] Zusätzlich kann die Dicke der Schale über die Flussgeschwindigkeiten von Innen-oder Zwischenphase eingestellt werden, und die Kerne lassen sich bezüglich der Schale unsymmetrisch platzieren, indem man die Viskosität der Schalenphase variiert. [209] Zur Herstellung von Nanopartikel-Kolloidosomen wurde die Ölphase verdampft. [210] Über monodisperse Partikel mit einstellbarer Form hinaus lassen sich in laminaren Flüssen auch Partikel erzeugen, die aus Bereichen mit unterschiedlichen Polymeren bestehen.…”