High monodispersity (CV < 2%)
Microfluidic Double Emulsion Device
[ORDRPDE]RayDrop Double Emulsion
The RayDrop is a microfluidic double emulsion device composed of three main, fully removable parts: two inserts on each side,a center section containing a nozzle, and an outlet capillary. There are 5 standard microfluidic connections, two on the box for the continuous phase and three others: one on each insert for the core shell phase entry,and one on the collecting emulsion outlet. The droplets are produced by controlling the squeezing of the droplet phase locally generated by the continuous phase at the entrance of the collection capillary.
The RayDrop specific design allows for multiple liquid type emulsification within the same device with no coating needed. The device can create both single and complex emulsions.
Main benefits
Reproducible- Flexible
Multiple applications
- Easy
One device, coating-free
Features of the RayDrop Double Emulsion Device
A unique device
Perform double emulsions in one single device.
A flexible device
Droplet size from 25 µm to 450µm outer diameter.
Frequency of up to 5 000 Hz.
Water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w) and oil-in-water-in-oil (o/w/o) within the same device.
User-friendly
Exchangeable nozzles that are easy to disassemble and clean with clear. microscope visualization and the ability to connect with standard tubing and nuts.
Surface coating not required
As opposed to standard double emulsion devices, the Raydrop does not require any surface coating steps.
The double emulsion device also does not require any surfactant for droplet generation.
Related applications
Raydrop, a universal droplet generator based on a non embedded co flow focusing
Check out our webinar to learn more about the RayDrop double emulsion device!
Most commercial microfluidic droplet generators rely on the planar flow-focusing configuration implemented in polymer or glass chips. The planar geometry, however, suffers from many limitations and drawbacks, such as the need of specific coatings or the use of dedicated surfactants, depending on the fluids in play. On the contrary, and thanks to their axisymmetric geometry, glass capillary-based droplet generators are a priori not fluid-dependent. Nevertheless, they have never reached the market because their assembly requires art-dependent and not scalable fabrication techniques. Here we present a new device, called Raydrop, based on the alignment of two capillaries immersed in a pressurized chamber containing the continuous phase. The dispersed phase exits one of the capillaries through a 3D-printed nozzle, placed in front of the extraction capillary for collecting the droplets. This non-embedded implementation of an axisymmetric flow-focusing is referred to co-flow-focusing.
In the context of a growing demand of controlled droplets in many areas, discover the Raydrop that emerges as a very robust and versatile solution easily implementable in laboratories with little experience and facilities in microfluidics.
What you will learn:
Introduction to droplet-based microfluidics
Current method & technologies present on the market droplet & emulsion production
Understand the advantages & challenges of droplet-based microfluidics
Discover a new method for droplet and emulsion production
Description
Most commercially available and lab-made droplet generators are based on a flow-focusing technology implemented in rectangular microchannels fabricated by lithography and made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polymers or glass. However, this planar configuration has many limitations due to the contact between the walls of the microchannels and both phases at the junction, requiring laborious and often ephemeral wettability treatments of these walls. On the contrary, due to their axisymmetric configuration, glass capillary systems do not have this drawback since the dispersed phase is never in contact with the walls of the outer capillary.
Therefore, The RayDrop double emulsion device relies on the alignment of two glass capillaries inside a pressurized chamber. A 3D-printed micro-nozzle is additionally connected at the tip of the injection capillary, enforcing the dripping of small droplets. This non-embedded design presents both the characteristics of a co-flow (axisymmetric geometry) and a flow-focusing (dramatic local accelerations of the continuous phase), and is thereby called non-embedded co-flow-focusing.
TheRayDrop double emulsion chip can be used for many applications from encapsulation of active pharmaceutical ingredients to cell and fragrance encapsulation in polymer microcapsules.
The design is known as a “technological breakthrough” due to the following:
- Its ability to enable high-throughput generation of monodisperse droplets for a wide variety of fluids, due to the continuous phase not being confined before entering the extraction capillary, and allowing for the flushing of viscous continuous phases.
- The double emulsion device is “plug-and-play” because of its standard connections and the possibility to easily assemble and disassemble all parts for cleaning.
In the context of a growing demand of controlled droplets in many areas, the Raydrop double emulsion device emerges as a robust and versatile solution, easily implementable in both laboratories with little experience and microfluidic facilities.
The RayDrop Double emulsion is available in three different standard configurations (Core Nozzle size-Shell Nozzle size-Extraction capillary size):
30 µm – 70 µm – 150µm
60 µm -120 µm – 300 µm
90 µm -160 µm -450 µm
As all capillaries from the RayDrop double emulsion device are easily exchangeable, users can change either the nozzle capillary or the collecting capillary with another nozzle or capillary size.
It can also be tuned to target different droplet size by changing capillaries size and nozzle configuration:
Small droplet configuration: 30µm-70µm-90µmThis two-nozzle configuration allows the device to decrease double emulsion size down to 50 µm.
The versatility of the RayDrop double emulsion device allows for proper operation, independently of the wetting properties of the materials in contact with the fluids, and independently of the physicochemical properties of these fluids (interfacial tension, viscosity, density, miscibility). It additionally indicates that tuning the diameters of the nozzle tip and/or the extraction capillary enables it to cover a wide range of droplet diameters with any given fluid, a feature unachievable with other single devices.
Specifications
| Device characteristics | Co-Flow focusing design |
| Droplet type | water in oil in water and oil in water in oil |
| Double emulsion size | Shell: 50 to 140 µm Core: 20 to 120 µm |
| Generation rate | 5 000 Hz (measured for the smallest double emulsion size) – can go higher under specific conditions |
| Nozzle type | Methalcrylate resin |
| Nozzle size | Core: 30 µm ID Shell: 70 µm ID |
| Inlet and outlet capillary | 150 µm ID |
| External dimensions | L*l*h = 92,5 mm * 52 mm * 13,5 mm |
| Weight | 405 |
| Operating pressure | 0 – 5 bar |
| Burst pressure | 10 bar |
| Wetted material: continuous phase | PEEK, FEP, glass, stainless steel, polyimide, Kalrez (seal), methalcrylate resin or glass (nozzle) |
| Wetted laterial: dispersed phase | PEEK, FEP, glass, methalcrylate resin or glass (nozzle) |
| PN | Product name | Capillary sizes | Nozzle type |
| ORDRPDE-30-70-150 | Complete Raydrop | 30µm-70µm-150µm | Methacrylate Resin |
| O-DE-RDRPC04-EUP | Complete Raydrop | 30µm-70µm-90µm | Methacrylate Resin |
| O-SP-DNI3070-CO | Double nozzle insert | 30µm-70µm | Methacrylate Resin |
| ORDRPSNO-90 | Simple nozzle insert | 90µm | Methalcrylate resin |
| ORDRPSNO-60 | Simple nozzle insert | 60µm | Methacrylate Resin |
| ORDRPCOL-150 | Collecting capillary insert | 150µm | Glass |