摘要
流体在微流通道中形成剪切流场(低雷诺数).不同于宏观体系,由于剪切力和表面张力的竞争作用,产生的液滴在微尺度下的微流通道中形成特殊的排列现象---周期性类似“晶格”排列现象.设计了新型流动聚焦型微流控芯片,分析研究在微流体系中液滴周期性图案化排列和转变机理性,液滴排列模式受两方面因素影响:水油两相的流速比值和微通道尺寸.当微通道宽度为250或300 μm时,液滴形成单层分散,双层和单层挤压排列.当微通道宽度为350 μm 时,液滴会形成单层分散到三层排列到双层挤压最后到单层挤压排列.当出口通道宽度增加到400 μm时,甚至出现了液滴四层排列的现象.同时研究了各个液滴排列模式的“转变点”.
We conducted experiments on specially designed microfluidic chips that generate droplets through a microfluidic ow-focusing approach. The fluid flow in the microfluidic channel produced a shear flow field at low Reynolds numbers. The droplets in the microfluidic system exhibited special droplet pattern formations similar to periodic crystal-like lattices because of the competition between shear forces and surface tension. By adjusting the flow rate ratio of the water (droplet phase) to oil (continuous phase) phases and changing the outlet channel widths, the droplets formed monolayer dispersion to double-layer formation to monolayer squeezing when the outlet channel widths were 250 or 300 μm. We also obtained droplets with monolayer dispersion, three-layer arrangements, double-layer squeezing, and monolayer squeezing when the outlet channel width was 350 μm. The outlet channel width was increased to 400 μm, and four-layer arrangements were observed. We also studied the translation of droplet formation, which resulted in a detailed strategy to control drop size and droplet pattern formation for emulsi cation in microfluidic devices. We expect that our strategy can provide theoretical guidance to synthesize dispersion or polydisperse colloid particles.
基金
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.20934004 and No.91127046) and the National Basic Research Program of China (No.2012CB821500 and No.2010CB934500).
关键词
流动聚焦型微流控
液滴图案化排列模式
转变
Microfluidic flow-focusing device, Droplet pattern formation, Transition