화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.299, No.2, 580-588, 2006
Microfluidic light scattering as a tool to study the structure of aqueous polymer solutions
A small-angle light scattering (SALS) apparatus, coupled with a specially designed microfluidic device is shown to monitor the formation and subsequent size distribution of giant multilamellar vesicles of a diblock copolymer in aqueous solution. The closed-face design, fabricated between glass slides using a UV-curable optical adhesive, incorporates multiple inlets, a mixing system, and a viewing window to perform on-line SALS. The mixing of each component is tested using polystyrene latex microspheres. Vesicles of the block copolymer, EO6BO11 in aqueous solution are formed on the SALS chip and the pair distance distribution function determined using an inverse Fourier transformation of the scattered intensity to quantify the population and distribution for a range of vesicle sizes. These experiments provide demonstrations of how SALS on a microfluidic device can be used as a rapid screening tool to optimize processing conditions for a range of polymer solutions. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.