Hydrophilic polycarbonate chips for generation of oil-in-water (O/W) and water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) emulsions

• Published in: Microfluidics and nanofluidics Vol. 14; no. 3-4; pp. 597 - 604
• Main Authors: Jankowski, Paweł, Ogończyk, Dominika, Derzsi, Ladislav, Lisowski, Wojciech, Garstecki, Piotr
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.03.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Biotechnology; Chips; Emulsions; Engineering; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Fabrication; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Microfluidics; Multilayers; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Polycarbonates; Research Paper; Various methods and equipments; Tin; Hydrophilic; Double emulsions; Microfluidic; Fluid mechanics; Wettability; Oil water emulsion; Water oil water emulsion; System on a chip; Hydrophilic compound; Microfluidics
• DOI: 10.1007/s10404-012-1078-4
• ISSN: 1613-4982

Modification of the surfaces of polycarbonate (PC) with the use of a solution of tin (II) chloride renders them hydrophilic. The surface draping is stable against exposure to water and to alcohols. Exposure to alkanes reduces but does not diminish the effect. The method is compatible—in using the same solvent and temperature—with the hydrophobic modification of PC (Jankowski et al. in Lab Chip 11:1151–1156, 2011 ). The combination of these methods makes it possible to generate single and multiple monodisperse emulsions with the use of flow-focusing junctions in systems made in PC—a material that is suitable for fabrication of multilayer, high-throughput microfluidic devices.