title: An aluminum microfluidic chip fabrication using a convenient micromilling process for fluorescent poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) microparticle generation.
abstract: This study presents the development of a robust aluminum-based microfluidic chip fabricated by conventional mechanical micromachining (computer numerical control-based micro-milling process). It applied the aluminum-based microfluidic chip to form poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles encapsulating CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs). A cross-flow design and flow-focusing system were employed to control the oil-in-water (o/w) emulsification to ensure the generation of uniformly-sized droplets. The size of the droplets could be tuned by adjusting the flow rates of the water and oil phases. The proposed microfluidic platform is easy to fabricate, set up, organize as well as program, and is valuable for further applications under harsh reaction conditions (high temperature and/or strong organic solvent systems). The proposed method has the advantages of actively controlling the droplet diameter, with a narrow size distribution, good sphericity, as well as being a simple process with a high throughput. In addition to the fluorescent PLGA microparticles in this study, this approach can also be applied to many applications in the pharmaceutical and biomedical area.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science & Technology, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung 84001, Taiwan. linys@sunrise.hk.edu.tw
authors.forename: Yung-Sheng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chih-Hui
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chih-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Fang-Rong
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Keng-Shiang
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wan-Chen
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum / Q000737:chemistry*; D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008863:Microspheres; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D000077182:Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer; D045663:Quantum Dots; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible; D000077182:Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid; D019344:Lactic Acid; D000535:Aluminum