Continuous Regime Microfluidic System for Nanocapsules Generation (original) (raw)

This research aims to develop a microfluidic system for chemical process miniaturization for nanocapsules generation. The emulsification, diffusion and solvent extraction/evaporation process was selected as target for miniaturization. LTCC was the selected substrate. Experiments showed the viability of controlling nanocapsules sizing by means of total flow rate through devices. Generated nanocapsules size varied between 790,5 nm ± 36,9 nm and 209,7 nm ± 3,5 nm with a polydispersity index (pdi) between 0,313 ± 0,016 and 0,09 ± 0,017 when flow rate varied between 90 mL/min and 293 mL/min. Other experiments were carried out up to 323 mL/min obtaining nanocapsules sizes down to 193 nm and pdi of 0,109. The flow rate working region is an order of magnitude higher than reported devices which bases its functioning in micromixers. Research results show the developed system potentiality in reducing the existing gap between laboratory and chemical process industry for microfluidic devices. Ke...