论文标题
Raydrop:一种基于非插入的共同流量的通用液滴发生器
Raydrop : a universal droplet generator based on a non-embedded co-flow-focusing
论文作者
论文摘要
大多数商用的微流体液滴发生器都依赖于在聚合物或玻璃芯片中实现的平面流动配置。然而,平面几何形状受到许多局限性和缺点的影响,例如需要特定的涂料或使用专用的表面活性剂,具体取决于发挥中的流体。相反,由于它们的轴对称几何形状,玻璃毛细管基液滴发生器是先验而非流体依赖性的。然而,他们从未进入市场,因为他们的组装需要依赖艺术的且不可扩展的制造技术。在这里,我们提出了一个新设备,称为Raydrop,基于两个浸入包含连续相的加压室中的毛细管的比对。分散的相通过3D打印的喷嘴离开了其中一个毛细管,放置在提取毛细管的前面,用于收集液滴。轴对称流动的这种非安装的实现称为{\ it co-Flow-to-Foclow cocusing}。实验结果证明了该设备的普遍性,这些流体可以被乳化,以及无需表面活性剂或涂层而无法获得的液滴半径范围。此外,基于准稳态假设的Navier-Stokes方程的数值计算显示出在变化几何和流体参数时正确预测滴水式液滴半径和滴水射击过渡。单分散性通过滴水制度,制造技术的鲁棒性,数值建模的优化能力以及配置授权到雷德罗普技术的普遍性在高通量液滴生成过程中具有很高的潜力。
Most commercial microfluidic droplet generators rely on the planar flow-focusing configuration implemented in polymer or glass chips. The planar geometry, however, suffers from many limitations and drawbacks, such as the need of specific coatings or the use of dedicated surfactants, depending on the fluids in play. On the contrary, and thanks to their axisymmetric geometry, glass capillary-based droplet generators are a priori not fluid-dependent. Nevertheless, they have never reached the market because their assembly requires art-dependent and not scalable fabrication techniques. Here we present a new device, called Raydrop, based on the alignment of two capillaries immersed in a pressurized chamber containing the continuous phase. The dispersed phase exits one of the capillaries through a 3D-printed nozzle, placed in front of the extraction capillary for collecting the droplets. This non-embedded implementation of an axisymmetric flow-focusing is referred to {\it co-flow-focusing}. Experimental results demonstrate the universality of the device in terms of the variety of fluids that can be emulsified, as well as the range of droplet radii that can be obtained, without neither the need of surfactant nor coating. Additionally, numerical computations of the Navier-Stokes equations based on the quasi-steadiness assumption are shown to correctly predict the droplet radius in the dripping regime and the dripping-jetting transition when varying the geometrical and fluid parameters. The monodispersity ensured by the dripping regime, the robustness of the fabrication technique, the optimization capabilities from the numerical modeling and the universality of the configuration confer to the Raydrop technology a very high potential in the race towards high-throughput droplet generation processes.