Abstract:

Monodisperse droplets are templates for producing spherical particles and microcapsules, and related materials are widely used in optical display, drug delivery, bioassay, food processing and other fields. Micro-dispersion technology is a recognized new method to obtain microdroplets with tiny size, narrow particle size distribution and controllable structure by accurately controlling the multiphase flow in microchannels. However, due to the low throughput of a single microchannel, its large-scale industrial and commercial applications are seriously limited. To achieve high-throughput and easy-to-control production, it is the basic numbering-up strategy of micro-dispersion devices by parallelizing a large number of microdroplet generators and the network of fluid distribution channels onto a single chip. To maintain the monodispersity of droplets and the robustness of device, the uniform distribution of fluid in parallel microchannels is a key scientific issue. This paper systematically reviews the recent progress in the numbering-up technology of micro-dispersion devices. The manufacturing technologies and materials are analyzed. On this basis, the future research directions of numbering-up of micro-dispersion devices are prospected.

Key words: micro-dispersion, microchannels, numbering-up, uniform distribution, device fabrication

摘要：

单分散液滴是生产球形颗粒和微胶囊的模板，相关材料广泛用于光学显示、药物递送、生物测定、食品加工等领域。微分散技术通过精确控制微米级通道内的多相流体流动获得尺寸小、粒径分布窄、结构复杂可控的微液滴，是一种公认的新方法。但由于单个微通道的低生产率，其大规模的工业和商业应用受到限制。为了实现产品的高通量、易控制的规模化生产，将大量液滴生成单元和流体分配通道网络并行到单个芯片上进行数量放大是微分散设备放大的基本模式。为了保持液滴的单分散性和设备的鲁棒性，流体在并联微通道内的均匀分布是关键科学问题。系统综述了微分散设备数量放大的最新进展，对加工技术和材料进行了相关分析，并在此基础上对微分散设备放大的未来研究方向进行展望。

关键词: 微分散, 微通道, 数量放大, 均匀分布, 装置加工