Microfluidic fabrication of ZrO2 microspheres using improved external gelation aided by polyacrylamide networks

Microfluidic generation of emulsion microdroplets, combined with external gelation, is a promising method for the continuous production of high-quality ceramic microspheres. However, the external gelation mode is sensitive to the environmental concentration of sol-gel triggering agent, resulting in gel deformation due to uneven infiltration and reaction within the sol microdroplets. In this work, a polyacrylamide (PAM) gel network was used to prevent the microdroplets from undergoing apparent deformation throughout the gelation process, and dense ZrO2 microspheres with high monodispersity and sphericity were fabricated successfully. Importantly, owing to the assistance of PAM network, the external gelation process becomes less sensitive and can be treated with a substantially higher triggering agent concentration, thus allowing a faster and more efficient sol-gel production of ZrO2 ceramic microspheres.