New paper in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics

Post date: Sep 25, 2012 1:56:34 PM

Shin-Hyun Kim, Jin Woong Kim, Do-Hoon Kim, Sang-Hoon Han and David A. Weitz, "Enhanced-throughput production of polymersomes using a parallelized capillary microfluidic device," Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2012). (accepted for publication) (Co-corresponding author)

We report a parallelized capillary microfluidic device for enhanced production rate of monodisperse polymersomes. This device consists of four independent capillary microfluidic devices, operated in parallel; each device produces monodisperse water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double-emulsion drops through a single-step emulsification. During generation of the double-emulsion drops, the innermost water drop is formed first and it triggers a breakup of the middle oil phase over wide range of flow rates; this enables robust and stable formation of the double-emulsion drops in all drop makers of the parallelized device. Double-emulsion drops are transformed to polymersomes through a dewetting of the amphiphile-laden middle oil phase on the surface of the innermost water drop, followed by the subsequent separation of the oil drop. Therefore, we can make polymersomes with a production rate enhanced by a factor given by the number of drop makers in the parallelized device.