Droplet Microfluidics: A Tool for Biology, Chemistry and Materials Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

Droplet microfluidics is a branch of fluid mechanics, soft condensed matter physics, and microtechnology dealing with droplet generation and manipulation in micrometre-sized structures. Droplets can be generated in microfluidic systems using a variety of different geometries and methods, such as on-demand droplet dispensing, electrowetting processes, microfluidic junctions, flow focusing channels, terrace and edge-based structures, air nozzles, and membrane emulsification. Applications of droplet microfluidics benefit from the ability of microfluidic systems to generate and manipulate droplets in a highly controllable fashion and to incorporate, integrate and synchronise numerous operations and processes within a single microfabricated entity, including droplet generation, indexing, splitting, merging, reagent dosing, encapsulating, incubating, analysing, sorting and manipulating under various fields (electric, acoustic, magnetic, optical, temperature, etc.) either in closed or open systems. Further, droplets can serve as microreactors for chemical and biochemical synthesis, analysis and diagnostics or templates for the synthesis of advanced and functional materials and bio-materials.  

The main aims of the Special Issue “Droplet Microfluidics: A Tool for Biology, Chemistry and Materials Engineering” is to be an open forum where researchers may share their investigations and findings in this promising field and, thanks to the open access platform, increase their visibility and the chances to interact with industries and academics. Contributions to this issue, both in the form of original research or review articles, may cover all aspects of droplet generation and manipulation in microfluidic systems ranging from fundamental aspects and modelling of droplet generation and manipulation to various applications in chemistry, biology and physics such as (but not limited to) chemical synthesis and micromixing within droplets, imaging, high-throughput screening, in vitro compartmentalisation and digestion, single-cell encapsulation, production of nanoparticles and microparticles, synthesis of cell and tissue mimics and drug delivery systems. Contributions may also deal with droplet microfluidic methods and microfabrication of droplet microfluidic systems. Multidisciplinary studies offering new methodologies or insights and emerging applications such as digital microfluidics and synthetic biology applications are particularly welcome.

Dr. Goran T. Vladisavljević
Dr. Guido Bolognesi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.