Droplet Microfluidics - Design, Implementation and Applications

Droplet microfluidics is an exciting area of research that focuses on manipulating droplets at the microscale. In this workshop, we are going to show: i) how to prepare a microfluidic system (from polycarbonate by milling, or using soft lithography), ii) how to modify the surface properties of the microfluidic channel (hydrophobic, hydrophilic), iii) how to produce microdroplets (water-in-oil or oil-in-water) in passive and active systems (droplets on demand), and iv) some exciting applications of the technique (microfluidic droplet traps, microdroplet clock, continuous droplet circulation, etc.). The tutorial covers the design of the entire system with sensors, valves, electrodes, electronics and software.