与常规乳化法相比,微流体装置内产生的液滴表现出明显的优势,如精确控制流体,特殊的单分散性,均匀的形态,灵活的操作,和狭窄的尺寸分布。这些固有的好处,包括本质安全,出色的传热和传质能力,和大的表面体积比,导致了基于液滴的微流体在不同领域的广泛应用,包括化学工程,粒子合成,生物检测,诊断,乳液制备,和药物。然而,尽管它有广泛的应用潜力,该技术在商业和工业中的实际应用极其限于在单个微通道内可实现的固有的低生产率。在过去的二十年里,基于液滴的微流体已经有了显著的发展,从概念验证阶段到工业化的相当大的过渡。现在,将学术研究转化为商业和工业应用的趋势越来越大,主要是由各个领域的新兴需求驱动。本文全面回顾了基于液滴的微流体的最新进展,涵盖基本工作原理和从工作原理到扩展集成的扩展集成的关键方面。根据现有的扩大规模战略,本文还概述了未来的研究方向,识别潜在的机会,并解决了典型的未解决的挑战。
Compared with the conventional emulsification method, droplets generated within microfluidic devices exhibit distinct advantages such as precise control of fluids, exceptional monodispersity, uniform morphology, flexible manipulation, and narrow size distribution. These inherent benefits, including intrinsic safety, excellent heat and mass transfer capabilities, and large surface-to-volume ratio, have led to the widespread applications of droplet-based microfluidics across diverse fields, encompassing chemical engineering, particle synthesis, biological detection, diagnostics, emulsion preparation, and pharmaceuticals. However, despite its promising potential for versatile applications, the practical utilization of this technology in commercial and industrial is extremely limited to the inherently low production rates achievable within a single microchannel. Over the past two decades, droplet-based microfluidics has evolved significantly, considerably transitioning from a proof-of-concept stage to industrialization. And now there is a growing trend towards translating academic research into commercial and industrial applications, primarily driven by the burgeoning demands of various fields. This paper comprehensively reviews recent advancements in droplet-based microfluidics, covering the fundamental working principles and the critical aspect of scale-up integration from working principles to scale-up integration. Based on the existing scale-up strategies, the paper also outlines the future research directions, identifies the potential opportunities, and addresses the typical unsolved challenges.