Despite some successes in translating microfluidic-based assays and diagnostics to commercial technologies have been achieved, few examples of such translations in the domain of materials manufacturing based on microfluidics have been accomplished, largely due to the very low throughput of droplet/bubble generations. Without solving the scale-up challenge, microfluidic-based materials synthesis will continue to remain an academic exercise that may not reach its true potential. In this talk, I will present the recent developments that the Issadore and Lee Groups at the University of Pennsylvania have made in enabling large-scale manufacturing of nano/microparticles using microfluidics. By parallelizing flow focusing generation units coupled with flow resistors in solvent-resistant materials, microfluidic generation of droplets and bubbles with precisely controlled size and morphology has been achieved at the liters-per-hr scale. Critical issues in enabling scale-up and outstanding challenges in future development of the scale-up devices will be discussed.

Factory-on-a-chip: scaling-up droplet microfluidics for large-scale particle synthesis

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ACS Spring 2023

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