论文标题
使用粘弹性液体在以流量为基础的微流体设备中击败泊松随机粒子封装
Beating Poisson stochastic particle encapsulation in flow-focusing microfluidic devices using viscoelastic liquids
论文作者
论文摘要
微流动流中颗粒的封装和共囊化对于与单细胞分析和材料合成有关的应用至关重要。但是，整个封装过程本质上是随机的，其效率受到所谓泊松限制的限制。我们在这里展示了颗粒封装和共囊化的微流体设备，具有流动的几何形状，效率高2倍，比泊松统计施加的随机极限大2倍。为此，我们利用了粘弹性液体中最近观察到的粒子序列形成现象，以便颗粒可以以恒定频率接近封装区域，随后将其同步到液滴形成的恒定频率。我们还基于实验结果开发了简化的表达，可以指导微流体封装系统的最佳设计。最后，我们报告了来自不同流的颗粒的粘弹性共囊化的第一个实验证据。
The encapsulation and co-encapsulation of particles in microfluidic flows is essential in applications related to single-cell analysis and material synthesis. However, the whole encapsulation process is stochastic in nature, and its efficiency is limited by the so-called Poisson limit. We here demonstrate particle encapsulation and co-encapsulation in microfluidic devices having flow-focusing geometries with efficiency up to 2-folds larger than the stochastic limit imposed by the Poisson statistics. To this aim, we exploited the recently observed phenomenon of particle train formation in viscoelastic liquids, so that particles could approach the encapsulation area with a constant frequency that was subsequently synchronised to the constant frequency of droplet formation. We also developed a simplified expression based on the experimental results that can guide optimal design of the microfluidic encapsulation system. Finally, we report the first experimental evidence of viscoelastic co-encapsulation of particles coming from different streams.
