Additive manufacturing of 3D flow-focusing millifluidics for the production of curable microdroplets

Abstract

Microfluidics plays a crucial role in the generation of mono-sized microdroplet emulsions. Traditional glass microfluidic chips typically lack versatility in generating curable droplets of arbitrary liquids due to the inherent hydrophilic nature of glass and to fabrication constraints. To overcome this, we designed a microdroplet generator with 3D flow-focusing capabilities that can be 3D-printed. The chip can handle oil-in-water emulsions despite its lipophilicity. Operating in the jetting regime, the chip exploits the Rayleigh–Plateau instability to enable high throughput. With its versatile design, the chip is capable of producing both single and double emulsions within the same channel. We utilize a thermoset (epoxy–melamine) based system to test its ability to handle curable chemicals and to produce in a post-processing step both solid particles and filled capsules. With a low solvent concentration in the curable material, the present system can encapsulate water-based cores of a wide range of sizes.