Robust Production of Well-Controlled Microdroplets in a 3D-Printed Chimney-Shaped Milli-Fluidic Device

Abstract

3D-printing technology has recently been exploited in droplet microfluidics due to its simplicity and low cost. Unresolved, however, is the design and fabrication of 3D-printed droplet generators that allow high throughput production of monodisperse droplets with sizes ranging from tens to hundreds of microns in a robust manner. Herein, a newly designed 3D-printed milli-fluidic device with a chimney-shaped void geometry that produces monodisperse droplets controllably with the size covering a broad range is reported. The droplet generator with four parallelized chimneys is devised to simultaneously generate droplets of various size as well as spherical glycine crystals of various size in a single system, demonstrating its potential as a point-of-care medicine manufacturing platform.