Production of Uniform Microspheres Using a Simple Microfluidic Device with Silica Capillary

摘要

A microfluidic device is fabricated by using silica capillary with 50 mu m inner diameter and 150 mu m outer diameter. This device is simple to fabricate by pouring the silica capillary with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), then removing the capillary after curing, to form the entire micrometer regime. This device can easily regulate the size of the oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion droplets by changing the flow rate of the continuous phase. The generated emulsion droplets can be reduced to a size of about 75 mu m, and produced in uniform size with a coefficient of variation of 2.6%. The polymeric microbeads using organic solvent were produced by mixing hydrophobic PDMS with PDMS-poly(ethylene glycol) to provide hydrophilicity. In addition, it was confirmed that this device can produce uniform emulsion droplets, even in the changed T-junction form. We believe that the microfluidic device with silica capillary can be used as a potential technique for the encapsulation and delivery of various therapeutic drugs.