Abstract
A surface modification method for bonded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannels is presented herein. Polymerization of acrylic acid was performed on the surface of a microchannel using an inline atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier microplasma technique. The surface treatment changes the wettability of the microchannel from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. This is a challenging task due to the fast hydrophobic recovery of the PDMS surface after modification. This modification allows the formation of highly monodisperse oil-in-water (O/W) droplets. The generation of water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsions was successfully achieved by connecting in series a hydrophobic microchip with a modified hydrophilic microchip. An original channel blocking technique to pattern the surface wettability of a specific section of a microchip using a viscous liquid comprising a mixture of honey and glycerol, is also presented for generating W/O/W emulsions on a single chip.
Highlights
Micrometer-sized emulsions formed in microfluidic systems are of great importance due to their wide applicability in various chemical and biological fields [1,2]
A single step inline microchannel surface modification method based on plasma polymerization of
A single step inline microchannel surface modification method based on plasma polymerization of acrylic acid has been developed for the stable production of on-chip double emulsions
Summary
Micrometer-sized emulsions formed in microfluidic systems are of great importance due to their wide applicability in various chemical and biological fields [1,2]. Conventional methods such as high shear homogenizers [3] and rotor/stator systems [4] are usually inadequate for generating high quality monodisperse microemulsions. In addition to single emulsions, microfluidic platforms are capable of producing highly uniform double (and multiple) emulsions [9,10] Both types of double emulsions, oil-in-water-in-oil (O/W/O) and water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W), have great potential for usage in food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical applications [11,12]. W/O/W emulsions, where small water droplets are enclosed within larger oil droplets, dispersed in a continuous water phase, are strong candidates for applications in drug delivery systems [13,14]
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