A high-performance flow-focusing geometry for spontaneous generation of monodispersed droplets is demonstrated. In this geometry, a two-phase flow is forced through a circular orifice integrated inside a silicon-based microchannel. The orifice with its cusp-like edge exerts a ring of maximized stress around the flow and ensures controlled breakup of droplets for a wide range of flow rates, forming highly periodic and reproducible dispersions. The droplet generation can be remarkably rapid, exceeding 10⁴ s⁻¹ for water-in-oil droplets and reaching 10³ s⁻¹ for oil-in-water droplets, being largely controlled by flow rate of the continuous phase. The droplet diameter and generation frequency are compared against a quasi-equilibrium model based on the critical Capillary number. The droplets are obtained despite the low Capillary number, below the critical value identified by the ratio of viscosities between the two phases and simple shear-flow.

Precise dispensing of microdroplets is an important process for droplet-based microfluidics. The droplet formation by shear force between two immiscible fluids depends on their flow rates, the viscosities, and the interfacial tension. In this letter, the authors report the use of integrated microheater and temperature sensor for controlling the droplet formation process. The technique exploits the dependency on temperature of viscosities and interfacial tension. Using a relatively low heating temperature ranging from 25to70°C, the droplet diameter can be adjusted to over two times of its original value. The relatively low temperature range makes sure that this concept is applicable for droplets containing biological samples.

Inspired by the game of “pinball” where rolling metal balls are guided by obstacles, here we describe a novel microfluidic technique which utilizes micropillars in a flow channel to continuously generate, encapsulate and guide Layer-by-Layer (LbL) polyelectrolyte microcapsules. Droplet-based microfluidic techniques were exploited to generate oil droplets which were smoothly guided along a row of micropillars to repeatedly travel through three parallel laminar streams consisting of two polymers and a washing solution. Devices were prototyped in PDMS and generated highly monodisperse and stable 45 ± 2 µm sized polyelectrolyte microcapsules. A total of six layers of hydrogen bonded polyelectrolytes (3 bi-layers) were adsorbed on each droplet within <3 minutes and a fluorescent intensity measurement confirmed polymer film deposition. AFM analysis revealed the thickness of each polymer layer to be approx. 2.8 nm. Our design approach not only provides a faster and more efficient alternative to conventional LbL deposition techniques, but also achieves the highest number of polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) reported thus far using microfluidics. Additionally, with our design, a larger number of PEMs can be deposited without adding any extra operational or interfacial complexities (e.g. syringe pumps) which are a necessity in most other designs. Based on the aforementioned advantages of our device, it may be developed into a great tool for drug encapsulation, or to create capsules for biosensing where deposition of thin nanofilms with controlled interfacial properties is highly required.