Production of monodisperse polyurea microcapsules using microfluidics
Production of monodisperse polyurea microcapsules using microfluidics
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-019-54512-4
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发表时间：
2019-11
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Michael F. Thorne;Felix Simkovic;A. Slater
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Michael F. Thorne;Felix Simkovic;A. Slater
制造微胶囊的方法--用于广泛的医疗保健和能源应用--目前存在着尺寸控制不力的问题，限制了尺寸/性质关系的建立。在这里，我们使用微流控技术来制备以柠檬烯为核心的单分散聚脲微胶囊(PUMC)。使用不同的流速和商用玻璃芯片，我们生产的胶囊平均直径为27、30、32、34和35 微米，每种尺寸的胶囊尺寸分布窄至±2 微米。我们描述了一种自动调整液滴大小的方法，因为它们是使用视频记录和自定义Python代码生成的。这种尺寸可控的PUMC的可持续生成是商业封装系统的潜在替代品，将使人们能够对颗粒尺寸对性能的影响有新的见解。
Methods to make microcapsules – used in a broad range of healthcare and energy applications – currently suffer from poor size control, limiting the establishment of size/property relationships. Here, we use microfluidics to produce monodisperse polyurea microcapsules (PUMC) with a limonene core. Using varied flow rates and a commercial glass chip, we produce capsules with mean diameters of 27, 30, 32, 34, and 35 µm, achieving narrow capsule size distributions of ±2 µm for each size. We describe an automated method of sizing droplets as they are produced using video recording and custom Python code. The sustainable generation of such size-controlled PUMCs, potential replacements for commercial encapsulated systems, will allow new insights into the effect of particle size on performance.