We describe the design, fabrication and use of a single-layered poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic structure for the entrapment and release of microdroplets in an array format controlled entirely by liquid flow. Aqueous picoliter droplets are trapped en masse and optically monitored for extended periods of time. Such an array-based approach is used to characterize droplet shrinkage, aggregation of encapsulated E. coli cells and enzymatic reactions. We also demonstrate that trapped droplets may be recovered from the microfluidic array for further processing.

Here we present the design, fabrication and operation of a microfluidic device to trap droplets in a large array of droplet pairs in a controlled manner with the aim of studying the transport of small molecules across the resultant surfactant bilayers formed between the droplet pairs.