A convenient plug-and-play coaxial microfluidic device and quantitative prediction of monodisperse droplets generation

摘要

Microfluidic technology has gradually become one of the most promising and convenient methods to generate monodisperse droplets, but even so, stable preparation in a microfluidic device is still technically challenging. This paper developed a simple coaxial microfluidic device, only composed of commercial parts, which can readily be assembled, adjusted and cleaned. Based on this design, the effects of two phase flow on droplet diameter and flow pattern were investigated experimentally. Furthermore, a theoretical relation for stable generation of monodisperse droplets was established and proved to be reasonable by experiments. This relation divided stable region for preparing desired droplets, which would greatly improve the efficiency and controllability of stable preparation process in microfluidic devices. It could also provide a technique support for the standardization and commercialization of microfluidic devices in the future.