Abstracto

Droplet-based microfluidics for smart emulsions and functional microparticles

Jianhong Xu

 In recent decades, droplet-based microfluidics has arisen as a new and promising field of science and technology. The use of microfluidics to manufacture functional materials has piqued the curiosity of scientists and technologists from many backgrounds and vocations. This paper will present the author's research group's recent advances in multiphase flow control in droplet-based microfluidics and the creation of smart emulsions and functional materials with microfluidics. Multiphase microfluidics will be used to control multiphase flow with varied flow patterns. They've been used in the fabrication of innovative materials in a variety of sectors, including optics, biomedicine, controlled porous materials, and drug release.The rapid expansion in the production and widespread use of synthetic chemical compounds in industrial sectors has resulted in an increase in the number of new pollutants in environmental matrices (air, wastewater, water, sediment, and soil), posing a problem for regulatory bodies.Apart from that, exposure to new contaminants, particularly in water and wastewater, has steadily harmed the ecosystem. Various physical, chemical, and biological approaches for efficiently eliminating contaminants have been documented. Membrane separation, biological degradation, enhanced oxidation, and adsorption are some of the technologies used. According to recent improvements, the adsorption process is advantageous due to its widespread availability, cheaper cost, and recyclability. Particle adsorption materials become the key for implementing diverse adsorption applications in environment remediation employing fixed bed reactors, absorption columns, fluidized beds, and cyclone separators due to cost effectiveness, ease of construction, and easy modification of operating conditions. Most traditional approaches, on the other hand, have restrictions in terms of regulated forms, sizes, and compartments. Microfluidics, in comparison to traditional techniques, has increased and expanded the possibilities for synthesising highly regulated size microparticles with outstanding adsorption capacity and reusability. Engineers, physicists, chemists, microtechnologists, and biotechnologists are all involved in microfluidics. Two of the three geometric length scales in microfluidic devices are usually in the micrometre range. The micrometre length scale specifies the most visible yet crucial feature of microfluidic devices: their tiny size, which allows for tiny sample quantities, cheap cost, and quick analysis while maintaining excellent resolution and sensitivity. The flow within microfluidic devices tends to be laminar due to the length scale associated with them. Furthermore, microscale downsizing is characterised by a great surface area to volume ratio. As a result, in microfluidics, this advantageous feature plays a critical role in fluid flow control and manipulation. Recent advancements and improvements have the potential to make microfluidics technology widespread, resulting in microfluidic devices that are more functional, efficient, and cost effective than traditional methods.