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Droplet freezing, docking, and the exchange of immiscible phase and surfactant around frozen droplets.

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a platform for cooling microfluidic chips so as to freeze aqueous droplets flowing in oil. Using a whole-chip cooling chamber, we can control the ambient temperature surrounding a microfluidic chip and induce cooling and freezing inside the channels. When combined with a droplet generation and droplet docking chip, this platform allows for the facile freezing of droplets immobilized in resistance-based docks. Depending on the design and shape of the docks, the frozen droplets can either be trapped stably in the docks or be released because deformed non-frozen aqueous droplets turn spherical when frozen, and thus can become dislodged from the docks. Additionally, using this chamber and chip combination we are able to exchange immiscible phases and surfactants surrounding the frozen droplets. The materials and methods are inexpensive and easily accessible to microfluidics researchers, making this a simple addition to an existing microfluidic platform.

SUBMITTER: Sgro AE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5600195 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Droplet freezing, docking, and the exchange of immiscible phase and surfactant around frozen droplets.

Sgro Allyson E AE Chiu Daniel T DT

Lab on a chip 20100514 14

This paper describes a platform for cooling microfluidic chips so as to freeze aqueous droplets flowing in oil. Using a whole-chip cooling chamber, we can control the ambient temperature surrounding a microfluidic chip and induce cooling and freezing inside the channels. When combined with a droplet generation and droplet docking chip, this platform allows for the facile freezing of droplets immobilized in resistance-based docks. Depending on the design and shape of the docks, the frozen droplet ...[more]

PMID: 20467690

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Project description:Motivated by the possibility of enhancing aerosol drug delivery to mucus-obstructed lungs, the spreading of a drop of aqueous surfactant solution on a physically entangled aqueous poly(acrylamide) solution subphase that mimics lung airway surface liquid was investigated. Sodium dodecyl sulfate was used as the surfactant. To visualize spreading of the drop and mimic the inclusion of a drug substance, fluorescein, a hydrophilic and non-surface-active dye, was added to the surfactant solution. The spreading progresses through a series of events. Marangoni stresses initiate the convective spreading of the drop. Simultaneously, surfactant escapes across the drop's contact line within a second of deposition and causes a change in subphase surface tension outside the drop on the order of 1 mN/m. Convective spreading of the drop ends within 2-3 s of drop deposition, when a new interfacial tension balance is achieved. Surfactant escape depletes the drop of surfactant, and the residual drop takes the form of a static lens of nonzero contact angle. On longer time scales, the surfactant dissolves into the subphase. The lens formed by the water in the deposited drop persists for as long as 3 min after the convective spreading process ends due to the long diffusional time scales associated with the underlying entangled polymer solution. The persistence of the lens suggests that the drop phase behaves as if it were immiscible with the subphase during this time period. Whereas surfactant escapes the spreading drop and advances on the subphase/vapor interface, hydrophilic dye molecules in the drop do not escape but remain with the drop throughout the convective spreading. The quasi-immiscible nature of the spreading event suggests that the chemical properties of the surfactant and subphase are much less important than their physical properties, consistent with prior qualitative studies of spreading of different types of surfactants on entangled polymer subphases: the selection of surfactant for pulmonary delivery applications may be limited only by physical and toxicological considerations. Further, the escape of surfactant from individual drops may provide an additional spreading mechanism in the lung, as hydrodynamic and/or surface pressure repulsions may drive individual droplets apart after deposition.

Dataset Information

Droplet freezing, docking, and the exchange of immiscible phase and surfactant around frozen droplets.

Publications

Droplet freezing, docking, and the exchange of immiscible phase and surfactant around frozen droplets.

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