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The Effect of the Mixing Region Geometry and Collector Distance on Microbubble Formation using a Capillary Embedded Microfluidic Device coupled with AC-DC Electric Fields

Kothandaraman, A; Alfadhl, Y; Qureshi, MRA; Edirisinghe, M; Ventikos, Y; (2019) The Effect of the Mixing Region Geometry and Collector Distance on Microbubble Formation using a Capillary Embedded Microfluidic Device coupled with AC-DC Electric Fields. Langmuir , 35 (31) pp. 10052-10060. 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b03677. Green open access

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Abstract

In this work we report a significant advance in the preparation of monodisperse microbubbles using a combination of microfluidic and electric field technologies. Microbubbles have been employed in various fields such as biomedical engineering, water purification and food engineering. Many techniques have been investigated for their preparation. Of these, the microfluidic T-Junction has shown great potential due to the high degree of control it has over processing parameters and the ability to produce monodisperse microbubbles. Two main investigations were conducted in this work - the effect of varying the mixing region distance (Mx) and the influence of altering the tip-to-collector distance (Dx) when an AC-DC field is applied. It was found that when Mx was decreased, the microbubble size also decreased from 128 ± 3.05µm to71 ± 4.04 µm due to an increase in shear stress as a result of a reduction in surface area. Similarly, decreasing the tip-to-collector distance results in an increase in electric field strength experienced at the nozzle, facilitating further reduction of bubble size from 111 ± 1.53 µm to 18 ± 2.08µm applied DC voltage of 6kV. These results suggest that a unique range of parameters can be formulated to achieve specific microbubble diameters to suit various applications.  .

Type: Article
Title: The Effect of the Mixing Region Geometry and Collector Distance on Microbubble Formation using a Capillary Embedded Microfluidic Device coupled with AC-DC Electric Fields
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b03677
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b03677
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10072875
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