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In situ microfluidic synthesis of monodisperse PEG microspheres

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Abstract

This study presents a microfluidic method for the production of monodisperse poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) microspheres using continuous droplet formation and in situ photopolymerization in microfluidic devices. We investigated the flow patterns for the stable formation of droplets using capillary number and the flow rate of the hexadecane phase. Under the stable region, the resulting microspheres showed narrow size distribution having a coefficient of variation (CV) of below 1.8%. The size of microspheres (45∼95 ώm) could be easily controlled by changing the interfacial tension between the two immiscible phases and the flow rates of the dispersed or continuous phase.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Chungnam National University, 305-764, Daejeon, Korea

    Chang-Hyung Choi, Jae-Hoon Jung, Taek-Sung Hwang & Chang-Soo Lee

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  1. Chang-Hyung Choi
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  2. Jae-Hoon Jung
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  3. Taek-Sung Hwang
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  4. Chang-Soo Lee
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Correspondence to Chang-Soo Lee.

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Choi, CH., Jung, JH., Hwang, TS. et al. In situ microfluidic synthesis of monodisperse PEG microspheres. Macromol. Res. 17, 163–167 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03218673

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03218673

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