Microfluidics platform for generation of microparticles and capsules through Electrohydrodynamics

In this work we present a microfluidics based implementation of electrohydrodynamics for generation microparticles and capsules. Electric fields are applied through a novel interface-crossing of the precursor single and double emulsion droplet. The particles are alginate based and the capsules have oil core with alginate shell. The particle and capsule sizes were investigated as functions of the applied electric field strength, when the droplet generation happened in the electrodripping mode. It was observed that the obtained particle/capsule sizes were much lower than non-EHD methods and the monodispersity is much better than external EHD approaches. Thus we show an efficient approach that couples EHD with microfluidics to generate uniformly sized microparticles and microcapsules.