• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.545-555
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• 2010

Recently, droplet-based microfluidic systems are widely used in various areas ranging from fundamental science including chemistry, biology, and physics to material science and engineering. This article reviews recent development in the droplet based microfluidic system from basic fabrication of tiny device, principle of droplet formation, merging, mixing, control of droplets, and application for the synthesis of novel functional materials. We discuss strong advantages of the droplet based microfluidics in point of control of particle size, morphologies, shapes, and structures.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 2014

Droplet based microfluidic systems have been developed for the application of biological and chemical research field. A picoliter droplet in microfluidic device provides a compartmentalized and well-defined reactor in miniaturized system. The microfluidic system with small droplets can reduce reagent cost and enhance efficiency through automated high-throughput screening system. In this review, we summarize the functionality of droplet based microfluidic system including droplet generation, precise droplet control, and various applications. In addition, this article reviews current applications in chemistry and biology, and discuss advantages of droplet based microfluidics compared with conventional manner.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4334-4340
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• 2012

In this work, we developed and evaluated the Liquid Particle Generator for generating fine particles in the air. The Liquid Particle Generator, which was based on the spray-evaporation method, had two kinds of orifices: 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm. The Liquid Particle Generator was operated at different pressure between 1 bar and 4 bars to find relationship between input pressure and droplet output rate. In addition, the size distribution of the droplets generated by the Liquid Particle Generator with different orifices was measured by the SMPS system and the optical particle counter. As a result, it was shown that the Liquid Particle Generator with 0.3 mm orifice generated droplets of around 0.3 ${\mu}m$ and atomized particles very stably. The Liquid Particle Generator having 0.5 mm orifice generated bigger droplets, compared with the Liquid Particle Generator with 0.3 mm orifice. Additionally, in these Liquid Particle Generators (0.3 mm and 0.5 mm orifice), little coagulation of particles did occur because of fine droplets atomized by the jet. Therefore, the Liquid Particle Generator could be used as an aerosol generator for atomizing fine particles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2002.02a
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• pp.98-103
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• 2002

초음파 비가진 시인 상용분무와 초음파가진 시인 개질분무, 간접진동분무, 간접진동 및 개질의 겸용분무의 네가지 경우 모두에서 분무액적의 평균직경 및 SMD가 전 영역에 걸쳐서 노즐 글에서 분무방향으로 멀어질수록 조금씩 증가했으며, 또한 초음파 비 가진시인 상용분무 경우가 초음파 가진 세경우에 비해 크게 나타났다. 초음파 가진 세가지 경우에서는 간접진동 및 개질법 겸용의 경우에서 분무액적의 미세화가 가장 우세하게 나타났다. 이는 초음파가 분무 축방향 전영역에 걸쳐서 분무액적의 미세화에 친화적임을 입증한다. 나. 분무 방향 축에서 반경 방향으로 갈수록 분무 액적의 평균 직경과 SMD는 감소하고 있으며, 반경방향 전 영역에 걸쳐서 상용 분무시의 액적이 가장 크게, 초음파겸용 경우에서 가장 작게 나타나고 있다. 이는 초음파가 분무 내부 전 영역에 걸쳐 액적의 미세화에 친화적임을 증명한다. 다. 분무액적의 크기에 따른 분무 분포도 비교에서 네가지 경우 모두에서 축 방향 거리가 멀수록 분무액적의 크기가 다소 증가함을 보였고, 축에서 반경 방향으로는 분무액적의 크기가 다소 감소함을 보이고 있다. 상용 분무와 초음파 분무의 비교에서 초음파 겸용 가진시는 상용 분무 때 보다 분무 영역 전반에 걸쳐서 미세화가 뚜렷이 우세함을 보였다.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.106-112
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• 2014

Here, we demonstrated the optimum design of pillar microstructure for efficient microdroplet merging. The microfluidic device mainly consisted of programmable microvalves and pillar microstructures. Based on the system, aqueous droplets were continuously generated at T-junction using actuating of integrated programmable microvalaves under the immiscible continuous fluid (mineral oil containing 0.5 wt% Span 80). The principle of merging process depended on the competitive correlation of hydraulic pressure of continuous phase and Laplace pressure of the droplet. We found that the design of the micropillars controls above two pressures. Finally, it was demonstrated that the microfluidic system could be able to efficient biochemical reaction. We expect that the microfluidic system is useful analytical or reaction tools in fundamental science, biotechnology, and chemical engineering.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.80-85
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• 2017

Recently, microalgae which can produce high-value products have attracted increasing attention for biological conversion of $CO_2$. However, low photosynthetic efficiency and productivity have limited the practical use of microalgae. Thus, we developed microdroplet photobioreactor for the analysis of photoautotrophic growth of model alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. $CO_2$ transfer rate was increased by integrating micropillar arrays and adjusting height of microchamber. These results were identified by change of cell growth rate and fluorescence intensity. Lastly, the photoautotrophic growth kinetics of C. reinhardtii in microdroplet photobioreactor were investigated under different $CO_2$ concentrations and light intensities for 96 hours. As a result, microdroplet photobioreactor was efficient platform for isolation and rapid evaluation of microalgal strains which have enhanced productivity of high-value products and growth performance.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.733-737
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• 2012

This study reports the microfluidic preparation of monodisperse multiple emulsions using hydrodynamic control. To generate multiple emulsions, we fabricate a microfluidic capillary device based on co-flowing stream without any surface modification of microchannels. Based on the system, we can successfully generate multiple emulsions (W/O/W) using water containing 0.5 wt% Tween 20, n-hexadecane with 5 wt% Span 80, and 10 wt% poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) aqueous solution, respectively. Furthermore, we control the number of inner droplets by modulation of flow rate of inner fluid at fixed flow rate of middle and outer fluid. The multiple emulsions having precisely controlled inner droplets' size and number can be applicable for multiple chemical reactions as an isolated microreactor.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.283-288
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• 2019

Monodisperse microparticles has been particularly enabling for various applications in the encapsulation and delivery of pharmaceutical agents. The microfluidic devices are attractive candidates to produce highly uniform droplets that serve as templates to form monodisperse microparticles. The microfluidic devices that have micro-scale channel allow precise control of the balance between surface tension and viscous forces in two-phase flows. One of its essential abilities is to generate highly monodisperse droplets. In this paper, a microfluidic approach for preparing monodisperse polycaprolactone (PCL) microparticles is presented. The microfluidic devices that have a flow-focusing generator are manufactured by soft-lithography using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The crucial factors in the droplet generation are the controllability of size and monodispersity of the microdroplets. For this, the volumetric flow rates of the dispersed phase of oil solution and the continuous phase of water to generate monodisperse droplets are optimized. As a result, the optimal flow condition for droplet dripping region that is able to generate uniform droplet is found. Furthermore, the droplets containing PCL polymer by solvent evaporation after collection of droplet from device is solidified to generate the microparticle. The particle size can be controlled by tuning the flow rate and the size of the microchannel. The monodispersity of the PCL particles is measured by a coefficient of variation (CV) below 5%.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.14 no.7 s.79
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• pp.587-594
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• 2005

분무성형공정은 급냉응고 및 결정입자 제어에 따른 고품위 소재 개발의 장점과 함께 고밀도 near-net-shape 제품의 제조가 가능한 합금제조기술이다 분무성형체의 미세조직은 적층표면에 도달하는 액적들의 평균 열용량, 즉 고상분율에 의하여 결정되며, 이는 액적의 비행과정에서의 분사가스-액적간의 열전달과 적층표면에서의 열유입과 열유출 속도에 영향을 받는다. 실제 다양한 공정변수들이 복합적으로 미세조직 형성과정에 영향을 미치지만, 균일한 미세조직을 얻기 위하여서는 적층표면에서의 온도와 고상분율을 항상 일정하게 제어하여야만 한다 즉, 적층표면 온도를 분무 성형공정중에 지속적으로 측정하여 이를 공정 제어 시스템에 feedback하여 원하는 적층표면온도를 유지하도록 공정변수를 제어하는 것이 필수적이다. 분무성형에 제조된 성형체는 합금원소의 편석이 없고 미세한 등방성의 결정립으로 이루어진 특징적인 미세조직을 나타낸다 이와 같은 미세조직으로 인하여 분무성형체는 우수한 성형성과 기계가공성을 나타내며, 또한 분무성형-후속가공된 최종 제품은 잉곳주조에 의하여 제조된 것과 비교하여 크게 향상된 기계적 성질을 가진다.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.761-766
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• 2018

Droplet-based microfluidic device has led to transformational new approaches in various applications including materials synthesis and high-throughput screening. However, efforts are required to enhance the production rate to industrial scale because of low production rate in a single droplet generator. In here, we present a method for enhancing production rate of monodisperse droplets via parallelization of flow-focusing generators. For this, we fabricated a three-dimensional monolithic elastomer device (3D MED) that has the 3D channel structures in a single layer, using a double-sided imprinting method. We demonstrated that the production rate of monodisperse droplet is increased by controlling the flow rate of continuous and dispersed phases in 3D MED with 8 droplet generators. Thus, we anticipate that this microfluidic system will be used in wide area including microparticle synthesis and screening system via encapsulation of various materials and cells in monodisperse droplets.