Production of monodisperse polyurea microcapsules using microfluidics.

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Thorne MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6884639 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature