Over the past two decades, microfluidic devices, which use technology to produce micrometer-sized droplets, have become crucial to various applications. These span chemical reactions, biomolecular analysis, soft-matter chemistry, and the production of fine materials.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A schematic illustration depicting the generation of microdroplets through the integration of inverse colloidal crystal structures into a microfluidic system. The system demonstrated the capability to produce over 10,000 droplets per second. Credit: Masumi Yamada, Chiba University Furthermore, droplet microfluidics has enabled new applications that were impossible with traditional methods. It can shape the size of the particles and influence their morphology and anisotropy. However, the conventional way of generating droplets in a single microchannel structure is often slow, limiting production. In a recent study featured in the 21 January 2024 issue of the journal Lab on a Chip, led by Associate Professor Masumi Yamada from the Department of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology at the Graduate School of Engineering at Chiba University, researchers have introduced a microfluidic system that utilizes porous "inverse colloidal crystal" (ICC) structures to improve the efficiency of microdroplet generation dramatically. "We considered that highly efficient droplet formation might be possible by using the numerous micropores…