Quantitative study for control of air–liquid segmented flow in a 3D-printed chip using a vacuum-driven system

Abstract The formation of droplets or bubbles in a microfluidic system is a significant topic requiring device miniaturization and a small volume of samples. Especially, a two-phase segmented flow can be applied to micro-mixing for chemical reactions and the treatment of heat and mass transfer. In this study, a flow of liquid slugs and bubbles was generated in a 3D-printed chip and controlled by a single pump creating a vacuum at the outlet. The pump and chip device were integrated to form a simple and portable system. The size and flow rate of liquid slugs, obtained through image processing techniques, were analyzed considering several parameters related to hydraulic resistance and pressure drop. In addition, the effect of segmentation on mixing was observed by measuring the intensity change using two different colored inks. The hydraulic resistance of air and liquid flows can be controlled by changing the tube length of air flow and the viscosity of liquid flow. Because the total pressure drop along the channel was produced using a single pump at the outlet of the channel, the size and flow rate of the liquid slugs showed a near linear relation depending on the hydraulic resistances. In contrast, as the total pressure varied with the flow rate of the pump, the size of the liquid slugs showed a nonlinear trend. This indicates that the frequency of the liquid slug formation induced by the squeezed bubble may be affected by several forces during the development of the liquid slugs and bubbles. In addition, each volume of liquid slug segmented by the air is within the range of 10–1 to 2 µL for this microfluidic system. The segmentation contributes to mixing efficiency based on the increased homogeneity factor of liquid. This study provides a new insight to better understand the liquid slug or droplet formation and predict the segmented flow based on the relationship between the resistance, flow rate, and pressure drop.