Production of monodispersed magnetic polymeric microspheres in a microfluidic chip and 3D simulation

• Published in: Microfluidics and nanofluidics 2016, Vol.20 (1), p.1, Article 6
• Main Authors: Bokharaei, Mehrdad, Schneider, Thomas, Dutz, Silvio, Stone, Roland C., Mefford, O. Thompson, Häfeli, Urs O.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Engineering; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Magnetic fields; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Polymers; Research Paper
• ISSN: 1613-4982; 1613-4990
• DOI: 10.1007/s10404-015-1693-y

The principles of droplet generation due to hydrodynamic instability in a microfluidic flow-focusing system were used to design and optimize a microfluidic chip that can be used for the direct production of polymeric microspheres with narrow size distribution and loaded with magnetic nanoparticles. To better understand the influence of different parameters on droplet generation and on the size and size distribution of the droplets in our microfluidic system, the behavior of the disperse phase and the continuous phase was simulated in a 3D computational multiphase droplet generation model. The experimentally determined droplet sizes showed good correlation with the computational model, agreeing within 1–17 % of each other, depending on the production parameters. In addition to pure polymer microspheres, for the first time our design allowed for the production of quasi-monosized magnetic microspheres containing magnetic nanoparticles with more than 15 wt%. The magnetic microspheres maintained superparamagnetic behavior and produced heat upon exposure to an alternating magnetic field which will allow for their future application in magnetically targeted hyperthermia treatment in cancer therapy.