Step emulsification is an attractive method for production of monodisperse drops. Its main advantage is the ability to parallelize many step emulsifier nozzles to achieve high production rates. However, step emulsification is sensitive to any obstructions at the nozzle exit. At high production rates, drops can accumulate at nozzle exits, disturb the formation of subsequent drops and impair monodispersity. As a result, parallelized step emulsifier devices typically do not work at maximum productivity. Here a design is introduced that parallelizes hundreds of step emulsifier nozzles, and effectively removes drops from the nozzle exits. The drop clearance is achieved by an open collecting channel, and is aided by buoyancy. Importantly, this clearance method avoids the use of a continuous phase flow for drop clearance and hence no shear is applied on the forming drops. The method works well for a wide range of drops, sizing from 30 to 1000 μm at production rates of 0.03 and 10 L per hour and achieved by 400 and 120 parallelized nozzles respectively.

中文翻译：

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无剪切和有效的喷嘴间隙可提高并行步骤乳化器设备的产量†

逐步乳化是生产单分散液滴的有吸引力的方法。它的主要优点是能够使许多步乳化剂喷嘴平行以实现高生产率。但是，逐步乳化对喷嘴出口处的任何障碍物都很敏感。在高生产率下，液滴会积聚在喷嘴出口处，干扰后续液滴的形成并损害单分散性。结果，平行步骤的乳化器装置通常不能以最大的生产率工作。此处介绍了一种设计，该设计可使数百个步进式乳化剂喷嘴平行化，并有效地去除喷嘴出口的液滴。落差是通过开放的收集通道来实现的，并借助浮力来实现。重要的，这种清除方法避免了使用连续相流进行墨滴清除，因此没有剪切作用施加在成型墨滴上。该方法适用于各种液滴，以每小时0.03和10 L的生产率将尺寸从30微米调整为1000微米，并分别通过400和120个平行喷嘴实现。