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Continuous and Size-Dependent Sorting of Emulsion Droplets Using Hydrodynamics in Pinched Microchannels

Langmuir2008Vol. 24(8), pp. 4405–4410

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2008 papers

Hirosuke Maenaka, Masumi Yamada, Masahiro Yasuda, Minoru Seki

Abstract

In this report, a microfluidic system is presented for continuous and size-dependent separation of droplets utilizing microscale hydrodynamics. The separation scheme is based on laminar-flow focusing and spreading in a pinched microchannel, referred to as "pinched flow fractionation (PFF)", which was previously developed for the size-dependent separation of solid particles, such as polymer microparticles or cells. By simply introducing emulsion and the continuous phase into a microchannel, continuous separation could be achieved without using complicated operations or devices. We first examined whether this scheme could be applied for droplets, by using a pinched microchannel with one outlet, and observed the behaviors of monodisperse droplets generated at the upstream T-junction. Analysis via high-speed imaging revealed that the length of the pinched segment is critical for precise separation of droplets. Then, separation of a polydisperse oil-in-water emulsion that was prepared previously was demonstrated using a microfluidic device equipped with multiple outlets. These results showed the ability of the presented system to sort or select specific-sized droplets easily and accurately, which would be difficult to achieve using normal-scale schemes, such as centrifugation or filtration.

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2008 papers

Abstract

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