3D Printing in Microfluidics: Experimental Optimization of Droplet Size and Generation Time through Flow Focusing, Phase, and Geometry Variation

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Britel, Adam, Tomagra, Giulia, Aprà, Pietro, Varzi, Veronica, Sturari, Sofia, Amine, Nour-hanne, Olivero, Paolo, Picollo, Federico
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866910346483073024
author Britel, Adam
Tomagra, Giulia
Aprà, Pietro
Varzi, Veronica
Sturari, Sofia
Amine, Nour-hanne
Olivero, Paolo
Picollo, Federico
author_facet Britel, Adam
Tomagra, Giulia
Aprà, Pietro
Varzi, Veronica
Sturari, Sofia
Amine, Nour-hanne
Olivero, Paolo
Picollo, Federico
contents Droplet-based microfluidics systems have become widely used in recent years thanks to their advantages, varying from the possibility of handling small fluid volumes to directly synthesizing and encapsulating various living forms for biological-related applications. The effectiveness of such systems mainly depends on the ability to control some of these system's parameters, such as produced droplet size and formation time, which represents a challenging task. This work reports an experimental study on tuning droplet size and generation time in a flow-focusing geometry fabricated with stereolithography 3D printing by exploring the interplay of phase and geometrical parameters. We produced droplets at different low flow rates of continuous and dispersed phases to assess the effect of each of these phases on the droplets' size and formation time. We observed that smaller droplets were produced for high viscosity oil and water phase, along with high flow rates. In addition, changing the microfluidics channels' width, and morphology of the orifice has shown a similar effect on droplet size, as shown in the case of high-viscosity solutions. The variation of the bifurcation angle shows a noticeable variation in terms of the achieved droplet size and formation time. We further investigated the impact of modifying the width ratio of the continuous and dispersed phases on droplet formation
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_17876
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle 3D Printing in Microfluidics: Experimental Optimization of Droplet Size and Generation Time through Flow Focusing, Phase, and Geometry Variation
Britel, Adam
Tomagra, Giulia
Aprà, Pietro
Varzi, Veronica
Sturari, Sofia
Amine, Nour-hanne
Olivero, Paolo
Picollo, Federico
Fluid Dynamics
Chemical Physics
Droplet-based microfluidics systems have become widely used in recent years thanks to their advantages, varying from the possibility of handling small fluid volumes to directly synthesizing and encapsulating various living forms for biological-related applications. The effectiveness of such systems mainly depends on the ability to control some of these system's parameters, such as produced droplet size and formation time, which represents a challenging task. This work reports an experimental study on tuning droplet size and generation time in a flow-focusing geometry fabricated with stereolithography 3D printing by exploring the interplay of phase and geometrical parameters. We produced droplets at different low flow rates of continuous and dispersed phases to assess the effect of each of these phases on the droplets' size and formation time. We observed that smaller droplets were produced for high viscosity oil and water phase, along with high flow rates. In addition, changing the microfluidics channels' width, and morphology of the orifice has shown a similar effect on droplet size, as shown in the case of high-viscosity solutions. The variation of the bifurcation angle shows a noticeable variation in terms of the achieved droplet size and formation time. We further investigated the impact of modifying the width ratio of the continuous and dispersed phases on droplet formation
title 3D Printing in Microfluidics: Experimental Optimization of Droplet Size and Generation Time through Flow Focusing, Phase, and Geometry Variation
topic Fluid Dynamics
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17876