Rémi Dangla

Dynamics of microfluidic droplets

This critical review discusses the current understanding of the formation, transport, and merging of drops in microfluidics. We focus on the physical ingredients which determine the flow of drops in microchannels and recall classical results of fluid dynamics which help explain the observed behaviour. We begin by introducing the main physical ingredients that differentiate droplet microfluidics from single-phase microfluidics, namely the modifications to the flow and pressure fields that are introduced by the presence of interfacial tension. Then three practical aspects are studied in detail: (i) The formation of drops and the dominant interactions depending on the geometry in which they are formed. (ii) The transport of drops, namely the evaluation of drop velocity, the pressure-velocity relationships, and the flow field induced by the presence of the drop. (iii) The fusion of two drops, including different methods of bridging the liquid film between them which enables their merging.

Microchannel deformations due to solvent-induced PDMS swelling

The compatibility of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channels with certain solvents is a well known problem of soft lithography techniques, in particular when it leads to the swelling of the PDMS blocks. However, little is known about the modification of microchannel geometries when they are subjected to swelling solvents. Here, we experimentally measure the deformations of the roof of PDMS microchannels due to such solvents. The dynamics of impregnation of the solvents in PDMS and its relation to volume dilation are first addressed in a model experiment, allowing the precise measurement of the diffusion coefficients of oils in PDMS. When Hexadecane, a swelling solvent, fills a microchannel 1 mm in width and 50 μm in height, we measure that the channel roof bends inwards and takes a parabolic shape with a maximum deformation of 7 μm. The amplitude of the subsidence is found to increase with the channel width, reaching 28 μm for a 2 mm wide test section. On the other hand, perfluorinated oils do not swell the PDMS and the microchannel geometry is not affected by the presence of perfluorodecalin. Finally, we observe that the trajectories of droplets flowing in this microchannel are strongly affected by the deformations: drops carried by swelling oils are pushed towards the edges of the channel while those carried by non-swelling oils remain in the channel center.