Production of biodegradable polymeric microparticles for drug delivery using microfluidic emulsification and solvent evaporation

Methods for the manufacture of monodisperse emulsions that serve as templates for the production of microspheres used in drug encapsulation are being increasingly explored. This is because such uniform emulsions bring about microparticles that possess higher drug encapsulation efficiencies and more predictable release profiles. In this work, droplet microfluidics is used for the generation of monodispersed emulsion droplets which serve as precursors for the production of microspheres with varying controllable surface and internal microstructures. Using flow focussing and co-flow/flow focussing geometric 3D (axisymmetric) glass capillary devices, microfluidic emulsification was achieved as a result of the unique cross-section orifice of its collection capillary. This enabled the symmetrical enveloping of a dispersed polymer solution phase by an aqueous continuous phase to easily generate droplets with coefficients of variation (CV) values less than 3 %. Sustained droplet generation techniques using existing software were investigated and a customized computer code using LABVIEW® written in this work to extend knowledge in this regard. [Continues.]