4. Coupling microfluidics with in situ analysis techniques

4.1 Image analysis of drops and crystals

Microfluidic methods for high-speed droplet generation, combined with optical microscopy and image analysis tools, can offer in situ observation of nucleation and crystal growth processes.

Microfluidics makes it possible to reproduce hundreds or even thousands of equivalent experiments, and thus obtain significant statistics for determining nucleation kinetics, by measuring nucleation frequencies or nucleation induction times, using image analysis.

The storage of droplets in systems-on-a-chip enables concentration and temperature gradients to be created in the same microfluidic device, leading to solubility curves (liquid-solid equilibrium) being obtained in a very short time and with very small...