. 2014 Dec 5;8(6):066504. doi: 10.1063/1.4902943

FIG. 4.

DOI: 10.1063/1.4902943.1

Bead generation in the two-phase beads generation chip: First, air droplets were generated at the bottleneck of the junction by sheath flow of oleic acid ((a)-1 and (a)-2) and oleic acid containing air droplets were squeezed by mineral oil ((a)-3 and (a)-4). After arrival of alginate solution, they were met at the bottleneck of the junction, and then the alginate droplets were made periodically by the shear flow of oleic acid ((b)-1). The generated alginate droplets were gelified by infused calcium in oleic acid and flowed along the microchannel with a uniform gap maintaining ((b)-2). The oleic acid was completely removed by the squeezing flow of mineral oil ((b)-3). (Multimedia view) [URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4902943.1]