Microfluidic emulsion characterization for the development of armored droplet arrays
Name
71227501-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
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2.26 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
c5df67096a421bf37123d496b6ec7837
Author(s)
Maltas, Stephen K
Advisor(s)
Darrell Irvine and Patrick Doyle.
Date Issued
2006
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
An experimental study was performed to determine the best method for using a flow-focusing device to produce monodisperse water droplets in a polymer flow with sufficient spacing to polymerize a protective shell around the droplets using continuous flow lithography. Contact angle measurements and surface tension measurements were used to determine how wettable the polymer is with respect to water and PDMS. Polymerization reaction kinetics tests were used to determine a suitable polymer for the system. The droplet size and spacing for different flow-focusing devices with different dimensions were characterized to determine the best dimensions. Finally, characterization tests for various polymer and water flow rates were performed to examine the droplet size, spacing, velocity and frequency of production, as well as the fluctuations and instabilities in the system. From these characterization tests it was determined that the best flow systems for armoring droplets arise when the water flow rate is greater than 0.05pL/min, the polymer flow rate is between 0.4 and 1.2pL/min and the flow-rate ration of water to polymer is less than 1:10.
Description
Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-42).
Subjects
Materials Science and Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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