Production of monodisperse polyurea microcapsules using microfluidics



Thorne, Michael F, Simkovic, Felix and Slater, Anna G ORCID: 0000-0002-1435-4331
(2019) Production of monodisperse polyurea microcapsules using microfluidics. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 9 (1). 17983-.

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Abstract

Methods to make microcapsules - used in a broad range of healthcare and energy applications - currently suffer from poor size control, limiting the establishment of size/property relationships. Here, we use microfluidics to produce monodisperse polyurea microcapsules (PUMC) with a limonene core. Using varied flow rates and a commercial glass chip, we produce capsules with mean diameters of 27, 30, 32, 34, and 35 µm, achieving narrow capsule size distributions of ±2 µm for each size. We describe an automated method of sizing droplets as they are produced using video recording and custom Python code. The sustainable generation of such size-controlled PUMCs, potential replacements for commercial encapsulated systems, will allow new insights into the effect of particle size on performance.

Item Type: Article
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 12 Dec 2019 09:35
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 00:12
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54512-4
Open Access URL: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54512-4
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3066061

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