Tokyo Institute of Technology · Engineering
Professor Takasi Nishisako's research lab specializes in microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip technologies, focusing on the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices for the precise generation of monodisperse droplets and particles. The lab develops advanced microfluidic systems for high-throughput production of functional materials, including Janus microspheres, double emulsions, and anisotropic particles, with applications in electronics, drug delivery, and materials science. Key research directions include droplet-based microfluidics, multiphase flow control, and large-scale integration of microfluidic units for industrial scalability.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
A planar microfluidic system produces monodisperse biphasic droplets that are subsequently polymerized to form bicolored Janus microspheres (see figure). Engineered spheres have a dipolar character and can be electrically actuated for application in a particle-based electronic paper display. A scale-up approach using multiple-channel integration on a chip is also described, which achieves high throughput for practical material production.
A method is given for generating droplets in a microchannel network. With oil as the continuous phase and water as the dispersed phase, pico/nanoliter-sized water droplets can be generated in a continuous phase flow at a -junction. The channel for the dispersed phase is 100 microm wide and 100 microm deep, whereas the channel for the continuous phase is 500 microm wide and 100 microm deep. For given experimental parameters, regular-sized droplets are reproducibly formed at a uniform speed. The d
In this study, we report the mass production of monodisperse emulsion droplets and particles using microfluidic large-scale integration on a chip. The production module comprises a glass microfluidic chip with planar microfabricated 16-256 droplet-formation units (DFUs) and a palm-sized stainless steel holder having several layers for supplying liquids into the inlets of the mounted chip. By using a module having 128 cross-junctions (i.e., 256 DFUs) arranged circularly on a 4 cm x 4 cm chip, we
This paper gives an overview of our recent work on the use of microfluidic devices to formulate double emulsions. Key issues in the controlled encapsulation of highly monodisperse drops include: (a) regular periodicity in the formation of micro droplets due to the interplay between viscous shearing and interfacial tension in low Reynolds number streams; (b) serially connected hydrophobic and hydrophilic microchannels to form aqueous and organic drops consecutively. Water-in-oil-in-water emulsion
A microfluidic approach is developed for the synthesis of anisotropic particles based on the flow of two immiscible organic phases, a polymerizable phase and a non-polymerizable phase, in a co-flowing aqueous stream within a microchannel. The anisotropic shape originates from the balancing of the interfacial energies between the three phases. The anisotropic particles shown in the figure are obtained by the photopolymerization of the droplets formed in the channels.
This study describes a microfluidic platform with coaxial annular world-to-chip interfaces for high-throughput production of single and compound emulsion droplets, having controlled sizes and internal compositions. The production module consists of two distinct elements: a planar square chip on which many copies of a microfluidic droplet generator (MFDG) are arranged circularly, and a cubic supporting module with coaxial annular channels for supplying fluids evenly to the inlets of the mounted c
Abstract The preparation of multiple emulsions with controlled droplet sizes and internal structures has been a challenge for a long time. However, in recent years, a major breakthrough has been achieved in the preparation of monodisperse single emulsions by small‐scale fluid processing, which has enabled the formation of multiple emulsions with the desired droplet sizes, structures, and compositions. This review deals with the preparation of controlled multiple emulsions in various microstructu
In this study, a simple capillary-based approach for producing biconcave polymeric microlenses with uniform size and shape from ternary emulsion droplets is presented. Monodisperse ternary emulsion droplets (0.6-4.0 nL) are produced which contain a photocurable segment of an acrylate monomer and two non-curable segments of silicone oil (SO) by using a microfluidic sheath-flowing droplet generator on a glass chip. The curvature radius of the interfaces separating the droplet segments, as well as
Membrane permeability assays play an important role in assessing drug transport activities across biological membranes. However, in conventional parallel artificial membrane permeability assays (PAMPA), the membrane model used is dissimilar to biological membranes physically and chemically. Here, we describe a microfluidic passive permeability assay using droplet interface bilayers (DIBs). In a microfluidic network, nanoliter-sized donor and acceptor aqueous droplets are alternately formed in cr
Droplet microfluidics has enabled the synthesis of polymeric particles with controlled sizes, shell thickness, and morphologies. Here, we report the Janus to core-shell structural evolution of biphasic droplets formed in a microfluidic flow-focusing device (MFFD) for the synthesis of polymer microcapsules with oil core/thickness-tunable shell via off-chip photo- and thermally induced polymerization. First, nanoliter-sized biphasic Janus droplets comprising an acrylate monomer and silicone oil we
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