1. Scaleable production of microbubbles using an ultrasound-modulated microfluidic device
- Author
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Paul Rademeyer, Walid Messaoudi, Ida Iranmanesh, Eleanor Stride, Dario Carugo, and Richard Browning
- Subjects
Mean diameter ,Ultrasonic emulsification ,Materials science ,Microbubbles ,Acoustics and Ultrasonics ,business.industry ,Sonication ,Ultrasound ,Microfluidics ,Contrast Media ,engineering.material ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,Coating ,Lab-On-A-Chip Devices ,engineering ,Ultrasound imaging ,business ,Biomedical engineering ,Ultrasonography - Abstract
Surfactant-coated gas microbubbles are widely used as contrast agents in ultrasound imaging and increasingly in therapeutic applications. The response of microbubbles to ultrasound can be strongly influenced by their size and coating properties, and hence the production method. Ultrasonic emulsification (sonication) is the most commonly employed method and can generate high concentrations of microbubbles rapidly, but with a broad size distribution, and there is a risk of contamination and/or degradation of sensitive components. Microfluidic devices provide excellent control over microbubble size, but are often challenging or costly to manufacture, offer low production rates (6s−1), and are prone to clogging. In this study, a hybrid sonication-microfluidic or “sonofluidic” device was developed. Bubbles of ∼180 μm diameter were produced rapidly in a T-junction and subsequently exposed to ultrasound (71–73 kHz) within a microchannel, generating microbubbles (mean diameter: 1–2 μm) at a rate of >108s−1 using a single device. Microbubbles were prepared using either the sonofluidic device or conventional sonication, and their size, concentration, and stability were comparable. The mean diameter, concentration, and stability were found to be comparable between techniques, but the microbubbles produced by the sonofluidic device were all
- Published
- 2022