Stabilizing Emulsions and Controlling Oxygen Release Via Microfluidics

Student’s name: Eitan Jentis Home Institution: Cornell University NNCI Site: MANTH @ University of Pennsylvania REU Principal Investigator: Dr. Daeyeon Lee– Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Pennsylvania REU Mentor: CK Yeh- Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Pennsylvania Abstract: Capsules that can slowly release oxygen over the course of hours or days could lead to the development of new technologies for promoting wound healing and scar prevention. Perflourodecalin (PFD) has excellent oxygen-dissolving capabilities due to its low density, providing the oxygen reservoir needed for prolonged oxygen release. However, the chemical properties of PFD make it immiscible in both water and oil, creating a challenge to encapsulate via standard double emulsions. Additionally, even if PFD is successfully encapsulated, the capsule shell must provide a sufficient barrier to oxygen diffusion to achieve the goal of slowing oxygen release kinetics. In this study, we show a way to encapsulate PFD and modulate the shell properties to tune oxygen release. We use a microfluidic approach to generate monodisperse capsules with precise control over the thickness-to-diameter ratio.