Abstract
Less expensive acrylic microchannel (MC) plates compared with conventional silicon MC plates were manufactured by molding injection method. The acrylic MC showed strong anti-alkalinity and hydrophobicity. We prepared emulsions using the acrylic MC plates and found that monodispersed water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions were produced successfully. In the pressure ranges for stable droplet formation, the average droplet diameters increased gradually with pressure. In water/trolein (containing 3 wt% of surfactant tetraglycerin condensed ricinoleic acid ester, CR310) system, the average droplet diameters of emulsion produced by acrylic MC plates with channel depths of 5, 10 and 20µm were 27-43, 42-60, 62-98µm, respectively. Each coefficient of variation (CV) was less than 10%, and the monodispersity was comparable with silicon MC emulsification system. When we used the continuous phases with different viscosities, it was found that the average diameters and CV values increased, the pressure ranges for stable droplet formation and droplet formation rate decreased as the viscosity of the continuous phase increased.
