ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT This chapter gives an overview of some of the important aspects of microchannel (MC) emulsification that include droplet generation via MC arrays, chip materials, operating conditions, and scaling-up strategies. General introduction that relates to MC emulsification is described in Section 9.1. Section 9.2 first explains the unique and very mild droplet-generation mechanism on MC emulsification that is driven by interfacial tension dominant on a micron scale. It also focuses on the effect of flow of the dispersed and continuous phases. Section 9.3 mainly introduces major microstructures used for MC emulsification: grooved MC arrays and asymmetric straight-through MC arrays. The effect of channel dimensions on the droplet size, droplet size distribution, and droplet productivity is also briefly reviewed. Section 9.4 introduces MC emulsification chips made of different materials and how their surface properties affect droplet-generation behavior. Section 9.5 focuses on some important process factors in MC emulsification such as temperature, liquid viscosity, and electrolyte concentration. Section 9.6 introduces our recent scaling-up strategies on MC emulsification chips, revealing the potential throughput capacity of greater than 10 t of monodisperse emulsions per year. Possible future approaches for further scaling-up MC emulsification chips are also discussed.