When making a droplet flow device what material should you use? What fabrication methods are available and will surface treatments be required? This review offers a guide, with examples, to making robust droplet flow devices.

We present a simple, automated method for high-throughput formation of droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) in a microfluidic device. We can form complex DIB networks that are able to fill predefined three dimensional architectures. Moreover, we demonstrate the flexibility of the system by using a variety of lipids including 1,2-diphytanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPhPC) and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC).