Microfluidic Generation of Acoustically Active Nanodroplets

1. Thomas D. Martz¹, 
2. David Bardin², 
3. Paul S. Sheeran³, 
4. Abraham P. Lee², 
5. Paul A. Dayton^3,*

Article first published online: 29 MAR 2012

DOI: 10.1002/smll.20110241

A microfluidic approach for the generation of perfluorocarbon nanodroplets as the primary emulsion with diameters as small as 300–400 nm is described. The system uses a pressure-controlled delivery of all reagents and increased viscosity in the continuous phase to drive the device into an advanced tip-streaming regime, which results in generation of droplets in the sub-micrometer range. Such nanodroplets may be appropriate for emerging biomedical applications.