Growth characteristic of microbubble in a T-junction microchannel in microfluidic chip

Abstract Microbubble formation in a T-junction microchannel in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip were developed. The experiment based on high-speed microscopic camera system was set up to investigate the effects of liquid flow rate, gas pressure and gas channel width on microbubble growth. Three stages of microbubble growth process were obtained through the experiment firstly. The control variable method was used for investigating the growth characteristics of microbubble, including volume change rate and the ratio of length to width. The present study provided an empirical reference for the growth of microbubble in microchannel, which helped to achieve precise control of microbubble volume.