HOW DOES IT WORK?

DropChips are fabricated from plastic (acrylic) and have a footprint of 40mm x 50mm (W x L).

DropChips are available with channels pre-treated as hydrophobic or hydrophilic:

• Hydrophobic to achieve water-in-oil droplets.

• Hydrophilic to achieve oil-in-water droplets.

DropChips are available in packs of 2, 5 or 10.

As illustrated in the schematic below, each DropChip contains:

• 1 x Flow Splitter and

• 3 x Droplet Generator junctions:

  • 2 x Flow-Focusing junctions, single-injection dispersed phase

  • 1 x Flow Focusing junction with dual-injection dispersed phase

This gives the user flexibility for experiments in flow focusing with single and dual-injection of dispersed phase.

Examples are illustrated in the images below.

Droplet Frequency

The creation of uniform, mono-dispersed  stable droplets is achieved with microfluidic syringe pumps such as Cellix's ExiGo pump or microfluidic pressure pumps such as Cellix's UniGo or 4U pumps.  Cellix's team conducted 3D scattering measurements to confirm frequency of droplets which can be achieved at defined flow rates as illustrated in the images and frequency graph below.  If you have a specific frequency you want to achieve, contact us for more help.

Droplet Frequency in DropChip  with channel dimensions 70um x 70um

Droplet Size

There are a variety of different droplet sizes possible and one of the biggest influencing factors of droplet size is the geometry and size of the channel dimensions.  Cellix's team conducted 3D scattering measurements to confirm size and volume of droplets which can be achieved with the two different types of droplet generator contained in the DropChip.  Schematics for each of the droplet generators available on Cellix's Dropchip are illustrated below and the following table provides a summary of the droplet sizes (diameter and volume) which may be achieved depending on the DropChip dimensions.

APPLICATIONS

Droplet Generation for a wide variety of applications:

• Cell / Protein encapsulation and sorting on-chip, see example below.

• DNA sequencing for target selection / enrichment.

• Sample / reagent mixing and control of reactions on-chip

• DNA amplification

• Biomolecule synthesis

• Diagnostic chips

• Drug discovery

For more details on experimental set-ups, visit our Droplet Generation page.

APPLICATION VIDEOS

Cell (or particle) double encapsulation:

The image below illustrates droplets containing cells, enclosed within a shell of oil.  The following is an example of the experimental set-up to achieve double encapsulation.

Experimental Set-up

• 3 x ExiGo pumps

• 3 x Flow Sensors

• 1 x DropChip (50um x 50um) coated with DropCoat (reagent ensuring hydrophobicity)

• 1 x DropChip (80um x 80um) uncoated, hydrophilic walls

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