title: Designed pneumatic valve actuators for controlled droplet breakup and generation.
abstract: The dynamic breakup of emulsion droplets was demonstrated in double-layered microfluidic devices equipped with designed pneumatic actuators. Uniform emulsion droplets, produced by shearing at a T-junction, were broken into smaller droplets when they passed downstream through constrictions formed by a pneumatically actuated valve in the upper control layer. The valve-assisted droplet breakup was significantly affected by the shape and layout of the control valves on the emulsion flow channel. Interestingly, by actuating the pneumatic valve immediately above the T-junction, the sizes of the emulsion droplets were controlled precisely in a programmatic manner that produced arrays of uniform emulsion droplets in various sizes and dynamic patterns.
authors.affiliation: National Creative Research Initiative Center for Integrated Optofluidic Systems, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Seung-Kon
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jong-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Seung-Man
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Gi-Ra
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Yi
mesh_terms: D004655:Emulsions; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D011312:Pressure; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions; D005740:Gases