Controllable microfluidic strategies for fabricating microparticles using emulsions as templates

Microfluidic techniques provide flexible strategies for fabrication of uniform advanced microparticles with well-tailored sizes, shapes, structures, and functions from controllable emulsion templates. This review highlights recent progress on controllable synthesis of microparticles using versatile microfluidic emulsions as templates. First, highly controllable and scalable microfluidic techniques for the generation of defined emulsions are introduced. Versatile microfluidic strategies for fabricating microparticles from diverse controllable emulsion templates are then summarized, including solid microparticles with spherical, non-spherical, and Janus configurations, porous microparticles with flexible pore structures, and compartmental microparticles with controlled internals. Finally, the future development of microfluidic techniques for microparticle fabrication is briefly discussed.