Rapid Stabilization of Droplets by Particles in Microfluidics: Role of Droplet Formation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Droplet‐based microfluidics has emerged as a powerful technology for the miniaturization and automation of biochemical assays. The replacement of surfactants by nanoparticles as interfacial stabilizers has gained increasing interest. However, the stabilization mechanism of droplets by nanoparticles in microchannels is poorly understood, drastically hindering the development of practical applications. Current methods for droplet stabilization involve a trade‐off between low droplet production throughput and the waste of a large number of nanoparticles. Herein, we introduce a modification to the droplet production junction that reduces the droplet stabilization time by an order of magnitude, and at the same time significantly reduces the particle waste. Our results show that the limiting step in the kinetics of stabilization is the initial time where both phases come into contact and offer a guideline for the design of particle‐stabilized droplet production devices.
A drop in the ocean: In droplet‐based microfluidics, methods for the use of nanoparticles as interfacial stabilizers in place of surfactants involve a trade‐off between low droplet production throughput and the waste of a large number of nanoparticles. This work introduces a modification to the droplet production junction that reduces the droplet stabilization time by an order of magnitude and concomitantly significantly reduces particle waste.