A microfluidic droplet system for ultra-monodisperse droplet generation: A universal approach.

• Revealed the root cause for droplet volume variation in fluidic systems. • Presented a universal novel method to achieve ultra-high monodispersity of droplets. • The novel method implemented for the most common droplet generators and flow sources. • Easily applicable method with no additional cost for existing droplet systems. Despite the importance of droplet monodispersity, a universal methodology for high monodispersity droplet generation does not exist yet. We have recently demonstrated that unlike the conventional method of droplet generation, applying an identical pressure from a single source makes the microfluidic droplet system immune to the external fluctuations that originate from the imperfection of the flow source. In this work, we show that our method is universal and applicable to other common microfluidic devices and flow sources. We applied this method to flow-focusing and coflow devices that are commonly used for high-frequency microdroplet generation. In addition to the pressure pump, we used a syringe pump to show that our method is applicable to flow rate controllable systems as well. We compared the monodispersity of droplets formed by the conventional methods and the novel method explained in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]