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Governing factors for preparation of silver nanoparticles using droplet-based microfluidic device

Biomedical Microdevices volume 21, Article number: 88 (2019) Cite this article

Abstract

Droplet-based microfluidic devices are now more than ever used for the synthesis of nanoparticles with low polydispersity and well-defined properties suitable for various industrial applications. Very small reaction volumes (microlitre to femtolitre) and short diffusion lengths, provide superior mixing efficiency and heat transport. Both play the dominant role in case of ultra-fast chemical reactions triggered upon reactant mixing, e.g. preparation of colloidal silver by reduction of silver salt. The high sensitivity of these systems to process variables makes otherwise more straightforward batch-wise production prone to suffer from inconsistency and poor reproducibility, which has an adverse effect on the reliability of production and further particle utilisation. This work presents a rigorous description of microfluidic droplet formation, reactant mixing, and nanoparticle synthesis using CFD simulations and experimental methods. The reaction mixture inside of droplets was homogenized in less than 40 milliseconds, which has been confirmed by simulations. Silver nanoparticles produced by droplet-based microfluidic chip showed superior to batch-wise preparation in terms of both particle uniformity and polydispersity.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR 17-11851Y). We would like to thank Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés for microfluidic designs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Technická 3, Prague, 166 28, Czechia

    O. Kašpar, A. H. Koyuncu, A. Pittermannová & V. Tokárová

  2. Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Technická 3, 166 28, Prague, Czechia

    P. Ulbrich

Authors
  1. O. Kašpar
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  2. A. H. Koyuncu
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  3. A. Pittermannová
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  4. P. Ulbrich
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  5. V. Tokárová
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Correspondence to V. Tokárová.

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Kašpar, O., Koyuncu, A.H., Pittermannová, A. et al. Governing factors for preparation of silver nanoparticles using droplet-based microfluidic device. Biomed Microdevices 21, 88 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-019-0435-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-019-0435-4

Keywords

  • Two-phase flow
  • Nanoparticles
  • Droplets
  • CFD simulation
  • Mixing efficiency