Preparation of Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Microparticles via a Co-flow Microfluidic Device and Investigation of Various Parameters Effect on Morphology

Amjadi, Ahdieh; Salami Hosseini, Mahdi; Ghashghaie, Fatemeh; Arabpour Roghabadi, Farzaneh; Jalili, Kiyumars; Ahmadi, Vahid

Preparation of Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Microparticles via a Co-flow Microfluidic Device and Investigation of Various Parameters Effect on Morphology

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

A. amjadi ¹

M. salami hosseini ¹

F. Ghashghaie ¹

F. Arabpour Roghabadi ²

K. Jalili ¹

V. Ahmadi ³

¹ Faculty of Polymer Engineering, Sahand University, P.O. Box 51335-1996, Tabriz, Iran

² Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-114, Tehran, Iran

³ Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-114, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Research Subject: Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is a silicone polymer that nowadays despite unique characteristics and high application potential of its microparticles, their preparation via bulk emulsification methods is a main challenge due to the limitations in mixing process, high viscosity and low surface energy of PDMS that make impossible accurate control of final obtained particles. In the present work, size-controlled PDMS microparticles were prepared from a high-viscosity material.

Research Approach: PDMS microparticles were obtained by using glass capillary co-flow microfluidic device. The designed microfluidic device is facile, inexpensive and reusable and facilitated preparation of the high-viscosity PDMS microdroplets. Stabilizing the oil-in-water emulsion was obtained by optimizing the bath components and curing process that resulted in monodisperse and spherical PDMS microparicles. Effect of the some important adjustable parameters such as microchannel diameter and flow rate on the flow regimes and microparticles polydispersity were investigated by means of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

Main Results: Results showed a dripping regime for producing monodisperse microparticles at low flow rates of the continuous phase and monodisperse microparticles from it. On the contrary, microparticles obtained from jetting regime are more polydisperse and smaller in comparison with dripping regime. By reducing the diameter of inner microchannel, microparticles with a diameter of 1.83 µm were obtained. Using the designed technology, uniform nanocomposite PDMS/ZnO microparticles 318 µm in diameter containing 15% ZnO were obtained from an oil phase viscosity of 7550 mPa.s. Therefore by an optimized and facile method, size-controllable uniform microparticles can be prepared that are proposed for various applications including drug delivery, bioengineering and electronic industry.

Keywords

Poly(dimethylsiloxane)

Microfluidic

Co-flow

Microparticle

Dispersity

Subjects

emulsion

[1]. Snorradóttir, B. S., Gudnason, P. I., Thorsteinsson, F., & Másson, M., Experimental design for optimizing drug release from silicone elastomer matrix and investigation of transdermal drug delivery, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 42, 559-567, 2011.
[2]. Nahrup, J. Schulze, Z. M. Gao, J. E. Mark, and A. Sakr., Poly (dimethylsiloxane) coatings for controlled drug release—polymer modifications, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 270, 199-208, 2004.
[3]. Vilanova, N., Rodríguez-Abreu, C., Fernández-Nieves, A., & Solans, C., Fabrication of novel silicone capsules with tunable mechanical properties by microfluidic techniques, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 5, 5247-5252, 2013.
[4]. Rankin, J.M., Neelakantan, N.K., Lundberg, K.E., Grzincic, E.M., Murphy, C.J. and Suslick, K.S., Magnetic, fluorescent, and copolymeric silicone microspheres, Advanced Science 2, 1500114, 2015.
[5]. Pinho, D., Muñoz-Sánchez, B.N., Anes, C.F., Vega, E.J. and Lima, R., Flexible PDMS microparticles to mimic RBCs in blood particulate analogue fluids, Mechanics Research Communications, 100, 103399, 2019.
[6]. Akamatsu, K., Ogawa, M., Katayama, R., Yonemura, K. and Nakao, S.I., A facile microencapsulation of phase change materials within silicone-based shells by using glass capillary devices. Colloids and Surfaces A, 567, 297-303, 2019.
[7]. Goller, M.I., Obey, T.M., Teare, D.O., Vincent, B. and Wegener, M.R., Inorganic “silicone oil” microgels. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 123, 183-193, 1997.
[8]. Liu, Y., Lan, K., Bagabas, A.A., Zhang, P., Gao, W., Wang, J., Sun, Z., Fan, J., Elzatahry, A.A. and Zhao, D., Ordered Macro/Mesoporous TiO2 Hollow Microspheres with Highly Crystalline Thin Shells for High‐Efficiency Photoconversion, Small, 12, 860-867, 2016.
[9]. Zhang, M., Wang, W., Xie, R., Ju, X., Liu, Z., Jiang, L., Chen, Q. and Chu, L., Controllable microfluidic strategies for fabricating microparticles using emulsions as templates, Particuology 24, 18-31, 2016.
[10]. Marquis, M., Alix, V., Capron, I., Cuenot, S. and Zykwinska, A., Microfluidic encapsulation of pickering oil microdroplets into alginate microgels for lipophilic compound delivery, ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 2, 535-543, 2016.
[11]. Park, J.I., Saffari, A., Kumar, S., Günther, A. and Kumacheva, E., Microfluidic synthesis of polymer and inorganic particulate materials, Annual Review of Materials Research, 40, 415-443, 2010.
[12]. Nguyen, H.T., Marquis, M., Anton, M. and Marze, S., Studying the real-time interplay between triglyceride digestion and lipophilic micronutrient bioaccessibility using droplet microfluidics. 1 lab on a chip method, Food Chemistry, 275, 523-529, 2019.
[13]. Montoya, N.V., Peterson, R., Ornell. K.J., Albrecht, D.K., and Coburn. J.M., Silk Particle Production Based on Silk/PVA Phase Separation Using a Microfabricated Co-flow Device, Molecules, 25, 890, 2019.
[14]. Opalski, A.S., Kaminski, T.S. and Garstecki, P., Droplet microfluidics as a tool for the generation of granular matters and functional emulsions, KONA Powder and Particle Journal 36 50-71, 2019.
[15]. Vladisavljević, G.T., Al Nuumani, R. and Nabavi, S.A., Microfluidic production of multiple emulsions, Micromachines, 8, 75, 2017.
[16]. Seo, M., Nie, Z., Xu, S., Mok, M., Lewis, P.C., Graham, R. and Kumacheva, E., Continuous microfluidic reactors for polymer particles, Langmuir, 21, 11614-11622, 2005.
[17]. Abate, A.R., Kutsovsky, M., Seiffert, S., Windbergs, M., Pinto, L.F., Rotem, A., Utada, A.S. and Weitz, D.A., Synthesis of Monodisperse Microparticles from Non‐Newtonian Polymer Solutions with Microfluidic Devices, Advanced Materials, 23, 1757-1760, 2011.
[18]. Utada, A.S., Fernandez-Nieves, A., Stone, H. A. and Weitz, D. A., Dripping to jetting transitions in coflowing liquid streams, Physical Review Letters, 99, 094502, 2007.
[19]. Garstecki, P., Ganan-Calvo, A.M. and Whitesides, G.M., Formation of bubbles and droplets in microfluidic systems, Technical Sciences, 53, 361-372, 2005.
[20]. Lin, X., Bao, F., Tu, C., Yin, Z., Gao, X., Lin, J. Dynamics of bubble formation in highly viscous liquid in co-flowing microfluidic device, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 23, 2019.
[21]. Pinho, D., Campo-Deano, L., Lima, R. and Pinho, F.T., In vitro particulate analogue fluids for experimental studies of rheological and hemorheological behavior of glucose-rich RBC suspensions, Biomicrofluidics, 11, 054105, 2017.
[22]. Calejo, J., Pinho, D., Galindo-Rosales, F.J., Lima, R. and Campo-Deaño, L., Particulate blood analogues reproducing the erythrocytes cell-free layer in a microfluidic device containing a hyperbolic contraction, Micromachines, 7, 4, 2016.
[23]. Muñoz-Sánchez, B.N., Silva, S.F., Pinho, D., Vega, E.J. and Lima, R., Generation of micro-sized PDMS particles by a flow focusing technique for biomicrofluidics applications, Biomicrofluidics, 10, 014122, 2016.