Ultrasound imaging often calls for the injection of contrast agents, micron-sized bubbles which echo strongly in blood and help distinguish vascularized tissue. Such microbubbles are also being augmented for targeted drug delivery and gene therapy, by the addition of surface receptors and therapeutic payloads. Unfortunately, conventional production methods yield a polydisperse population, whose nonuniform resonance and drug-loading are less than ideal. An alternative technique, microfluidic flow-focusing, is able to produce highly monodisperse microbubbles with stabilizing lipid membranes and drug-carrying oil layers. However, the published 1 kHz production rate for these uniform drug bubbles is very low compared to conventional methods, and must be improved before clinical use can be practical. In this study, flow-focusing production of oil-layered lipid microbubbles was tested up to 300 kHz, with coalescence suppressed by high lipid concentrations or inclusion of Pluronic F68 surfactant in the lipid solution. The transition between geometry-controlled and dripping production regimes was analysed, and production scaling was found to be continuous, with a power trend of exponent ~5/12 similar to literature. Unlike prior studies with this trend, however, scaling curves here were found to be pressure-dependent, particularly at lower pressure-flow equilibria (e.g. <15 psi). Adjustments in oil flow rate were observed to have a similar effect, akin to a pressure change of 1–3 psi. This analysis and characterization of high-speed dual-layer bubble generation will enable more-predictive production control, at rates practical for in vivo or clinical use.

In this study we report on a microfluidic device and droplet formation regime capable of generating clinical-scale quantities of droplet emulsions suitable in size and functionality for in vivo therapeutics. By increasing the capillary number – based on the flow rate of the continuous outer phase – in our flow-focusing device, we examine three modes of droplet breakup: geometry-controlled, dripping, and jetting. Operation of our device in the dripping regime results in the generation of highly monodisperse liquid perfluoropentane droplets in the appropriate 3–6 µm range at rates exceeding 105 droplets per second. Based on experimental results relating droplet diameter and the ratio of the continuous and dispersed phase flow rates, we derive a power series equation, valid in the dripping regime, to predict droplet size by Dd ≅ 27(QC/QD)−5/12. The volatile droplets in this study are stable for weeks at room temperature yet undergo rapid liquid-to-gas phase transition, and volume expansion, above a uniform thermal activation threshold. The opportunity exists to potentiate locoregional cancer therapies such as thermal ablation and percutaneous ethanol injection using thermal or acoustic vaporization of these monodisperse phase-change droplets to intentionally occlude the vessels of a cancer.

Liquid perfluorocarbon droplets have been of interest in the medical acoustics community for use as acoustically activated particles for tissue occlusion, imaging, and therapeutics. To date, methods to produce liquid perfluorocarbon droplets typically result in a polydisperse size distribution. Since the threshold of acoustic activation is a function of diameter, there would be benefit from a monodisperse population to preserve uniformity in acoustic activation parameters. Through the use of a microfluidic device with flow focusing technology, the production of droplets of perfluoropentane with a uniform size distribution is demonstrated. Stability studies indicate that these droplets are stable in storage for at least two weeks. Acoustic studies illustrate the thresholds of vaporization as a function of droplet diameter, and a logarithmic relationship is observed between acoustic pressure and vaporization threshold within the size ranges studied. Droplets of uniform size have very little variability in acoustic vaporization threshold. Results indicate that microfluidic technology can enable greater manufacturing control of phase change perfluorocarbons for acoustic droplet vaporization applications.

A microfluidic approach for the generation of perfluorocarbon nanodroplets as the primary emulsion with diameters as small as 300–400 nm is described. The system uses a pressure‐controlled delivery of all reagents and increased viscosity in the continuous phase to drive the device into an advanced tip‐streaming regime, which results in generation of droplets in the sub‐micrometer range. Such nanodroplets may be appropriate for emerging biomedical applications.

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