Linas Mazutis and Andrew Griffiths demonstrate a passive approach to selectively fuse droplets in 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 ratios. They show that spontaneous droplet coalescence is dependant on the contact time between droplets before coalescence, and coverage by the surfactant.
Selective droplet coalescence using microfluidic systems
Linas Mazutis and Andrew D. Griffiths
Lab Chip, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC40121E
The second hot article is from Saif A. Khan and Suhanya Duraiswamy, who have come up with a way to avoid the problems caused by the evolution of bubbles of H2 in the synthesis of nanoparticles on chips. They inject a stream of N2 gas into the microfluidic channels, which captures the H2 before it can reach the threshold for bubble nucleation and have shown the method works for the synthesis of ultra-small gold nanocrystals.
Controlling bubbles using bubbles—microfluidic synthesis of ultra-small gold nanocrystals with gas-evolving reducing agents
Saif A. Khan and Suhanya Duraiswamy
Lab Chip, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC21198J
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