CN-121972111-A - Integrated stepped T-shaped micro-reactor and method for preparing microspheres with high flux

CN121972111ACN 121972111 ACN121972111 ACN 121972111ACN-121972111-A

Abstract

The invention discloses an integrated stepped T-shaped microreactor and a method for preparing microspheres at high flux, and belongs to the technical field of droplet microreactors. The micro-reactor comprises a plurality of continuous communication channel units and a plurality of disperse phase channel units which are arranged on a single-layer substrate, wherein each continuous communication channel unit comprises a main channel and a plurality of main split channels, the main split channels form 2 N main split channels through a multi-stage bifurcating structure, each disperse phase channel unit comprises a branch channel and a plurality of branch split channels, the branch split channels form 2 N branch split channels through a multi-stage bifurcating structure, 2 N main split channels are in one-to-one correspondence with 2 N branch split channels, and a liquid drop generation channel is formed at the junction, wherein two adjacent liquid drop generation channels are intersected at the same collecting port, and the two adjacent main split channels and the two adjacent branch split channels are arranged in mirror symmetry with the liquid drop generation unit as the center.

Inventors

Hao nanjing
LUO ZIJUAN
MA LI

Assignees

西安交通大学

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20260331

Claims (8)

1. An integrated stepped T-shaped microreactor is characterized by comprising a single-layer substrate, a plurality of continuous channel units and a plurality of disperse channel units, wherein the continuous channel units and the disperse channel units are arranged on the single-layer substrate; Each continuous phase channel unit comprises a main channel and a plurality of main split channels, wherein the main split channels are communicated with the main channels through a multi-stage bifurcation structure, the multi-stage bifurcation structure comprises N stages, each inlet channel of each stage bifurcation structure correspondingly splits two outlet channels, and after N stages of bifurcation, 2 N main split channels are formed; each disperse phase channel unit comprises a branch channel and a plurality of branch splitting channels, wherein the branch splitting channels are communicated with the branch channels through a multi-stage bifurcating structure, the multi-stage bifurcating structure is of N stages, each inlet channel of each stage bifurcating structure correspondingly splits two outlet channels, and after N stages of gradual splitting, 2 N branch splitting channels are formed; The 2 N main splitting channels and the 2 N branch splitting channels are in one-to-one correspondence pairing, and a liquid drop generation channel is formed at the junction of each pair of main splitting channels and branch splitting channels; Wherein each two adjacent main splitting channels and two droplet generation channels corresponding to each two adjacent branch splitting channels are intersected at the same collecting port, the two adjacent main split channels and the two adjacent branch split channels are arranged in mirror symmetry with the droplet generation unit as a center.
2. The integrated stepped T-microreactor of claim 1, wherein all said primary split channels at the same level are equal in length and all said branch split channels at the same level are equal in length.
3. The integrated stepped T-microreactor of claim 1, wherein the multi-stage bifurcated structure is a fully symmetrical binary tree-shaped split structure, the main split channels and the branch split channels at each stage of split nodes are axially symmetrically arranged with the split nodes as the center.
4. The integrated stepped T-microreactor of claim 1, wherein said microreactor is formed by a plurality of basic unit structures arranged in an array, each of said basic unit structures comprising one of said continuous phase channel units, one of said dispersed phase channel units, four of said droplet-generating channels and two of said collection ports, and said continuous phase channel units and said dispersed phase channel units are symmetrically disposed, each of said continuous phase channel units and said dispersed phase channel units corresponding to a set of split channels formed by a two-stage bifurcating structure.
5. The integrated stepped T-microreactor of claim 1, wherein said droplet-generating channel is a stepped T-channel having rounded corner structures at the intersection of said main split channel and said branch split channel, and wherein the outlet of said droplet-generating channel has an enlarged segment channel structure communicating with said collection port.
6. The integrated stepped T-microreactor of claim 1, wherein the junctions of the multi-stage bifurcate structure are each provided with rounded structures.
7. The integrated stepped T-type microreactor of claim 1, wherein said single-layer substrate is integrally formed by a photolithographic process, said continuous channel unit and said discrete channel unit are micro-channel structures etched on said single-layer substrate, and said single-layer substrate is covered with a removable or bonded cover plate.
8. A method for preparing microspheres by adopting the integrated stepped T-shaped microreactor as claimed in any one of claims 1-7 is characterized by comprising the steps of introducing continuous phase fluid through the main channel, introducing disperse phase fluid through the branch channels, dividing the continuous phase fluid step by step through an N-level dividing structure, uniformly distributing the disperse phase fluid to 2 N main dividing channels, dividing the disperse phase fluid step by step through the N-level dividing structure, uniformly distributing the disperse phase fluid to 2 N branch dividing channels, forming micro-droplets by the continuous phase fluid and the disperse phase fluid at the junction of each pair of the main dividing channels and the branch dividing channels, collecting the micro-droplets generated by each two adjacent droplet generating channels through the same collecting port, and curing the collected micro-droplets to form the microspheres.

Description

Integrated stepped T-shaped micro-reactor and method for preparing microspheres with high flux Technical Field The invention relates to the technical field of droplet microreactors, in particular to an integrated stepped T-shaped microreactor and a method for preparing microspheres at high flux. Background The droplet microfluidic technology has wide application prospect in the fields of functional microsphere preparation, drug delivery, single cell analysis and the like because the generation of micron-sized droplets can be accurately controlled. The microsphere prepared by the microfluidic technology has the advantages of uniform size, adjustable structure, good batch repeatability and the like, and can effectively solve the problems of poor stability, wide size distribution and the like in the traditional mechanical stirring method, emulsion polymerization method and the like. As microfluidic technology advances from laboratory research to industrial production, how to increase the production throughput of microspheres becomes a key bottleneck restricting its commercial application. The single-channel microfluidic chip can generate highly monodisperse liquid drops, but the yield is usually only in the order of milliliters per hour, and the requirement of industrial production is far from being met. For this reason, researchers have proposed various integrated, parallelized microfluidic chip designs in order to greatly improve the yield while maintaining the droplet uniformity. In order to improve flux in the prior art, parallelization is often realized by adopting a stacking mode of a multi-layer channel structure, so that precise alignment and bonding of a multi-layer substrate are needed, the packaging process is complex, and pressure distribution among layers is uneven due to height difference caused by multi-layer stacking, so that uniformity of droplet size is affected. The channel designs employed in the prior art to reduce the overall flow resistance typically occupy a large chip area, limiting further dense integration of droplet-producing units within a limited area. Meanwhile, each droplet production unit is usually corresponding to an independent output channel, and when the number of units is greatly increased, the complexity and packaging difficulty of an output pipeline are also increased sharply, so that the further improvement of flux is restricted. Therefore, how to provide an integrated droplet microreactor with a simple structure, easy processing and convenient expansion, and achieve higher integration and larger flux on the premise of guaranteeing fluid distribution uniformity and droplet uniformity, is still a technical problem to be solved in the field. Disclosure of Invention The invention aims to overcome the problems in the prior art and provides an integrated double-layer stepped microreactor and a method for preparing microspheres with high flux. In order to solve the problems, the invention provides an integrated stepped T-shaped droplet microreactor, which comprises a single-layer substrate, a plurality of continuous channel units and a plurality of disperse channel units, wherein the continuous channel units and the disperse channel units are arranged on the single-layer substrate; Each continuous phase channel unit comprises a main channel and a plurality of main split channels, wherein the main split channels are communicated with the main channels through a multi-stage bifurcation structure, the multi-stage bifurcation structure comprises N stages, each inlet channel of each stage bifurcation structure correspondingly splits two outlet channels, and after N stages of bifurcation, 2 N main split channels are formed; each disperse phase channel unit comprises a branch channel and a plurality of branch splitting channels, wherein the branch splitting channels are communicated with the branch channels through a multi-stage bifurcating structure, the multi-stage bifurcating structure is of N stages, each inlet channel of each stage bifurcating structure correspondingly splits two outlet channels, and after N stages of gradual splitting, 2 N branch splitting channels are formed; The 2 N main splitting channels and the 2 N branch splitting channels are in one-to-one correspondence pairing, and a liquid drop generation channel is formed at the junction of each pair of main splitting channels and branch splitting channels; the two adjacent main splitting channels and two droplet generation channels corresponding to the two adjacent branch splitting channels are intersected in the same droplet generation channel, the outlets of the two droplet generation channels are communicated to a common collecting port, and the two adjacent main splitting channels and the two adjacent branch splitting channels are arranged in a mirror symmetry mode with the droplet generation unit as a center. Preferably, the lengths of all the main split channels at the same level are equal, and the lengths o