title: Robust scalable high throughput production of monodisperse drops.
abstract: Monodisperse drops with diameters between 20 μm and 200 μm can be used to produce particles or capsules for many applications such as for cosmetics, food, and biotechnology. Drops composed of low viscosity fluids can be conveniently made using microfluidic devices. However, the throughput of microfluidic devices is limited and scale-up, achieved by increasing the number of devices run in parallel, can compromise the narrow drop-size distribution. In this paper, we present a microfluidic device, the millipede device, which forms drops through a static instability such that the fluid volume that is pinched off is the same every time a drop forms. As a result, the drops are highly monodisperse because their size is solely determined by the device geometry. This makes the operation of the device very robust. Therefore, the device can be scaled to a large number of nozzles operating simultaneously on the same chip; we demonstrate the operation of more than 500 nozzles on a single chip that produces up to 150 mL h-1of highly monodisperse drops.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. weitz@seas.harvard.edu and Institute of Materials, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Amstad
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. weitz@seas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chemama
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. weitz@seas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eggersdorfer
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. weitz@seas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Arriaga
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. weitz@seas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. weitz@seas.harvard.edu and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Weitz