A droplet microfluidic chip for in-situ bioaerosol sampling and detection

Bioaerosols are characterized by complex compositions, presenting significant challenges for in situ rapid monitoring of their physicochemical properties. Leveraging the high-throughput, high-resolution, and highly integrated features of droplet microfluidics, this study develops a bioaerosol detector based on a droplet microfluidic chip. The system aerodynamically focuses bioaerosols directly into microdroplets, creating monodisperse microreactors to enhance analytical performance and fluidic manipulation. This investigation systematically examines droplet generation mechanisms in microfluidic chips, with particular emphasis on the effects of T-junction structure, flow-focusing configuration, and coaxial flow structure on droplet formation dynamics. Experimental results demonstrate that optimized chip architecture combined with precise parameter control enables efficient generation and manipulation of small-volume monodisperse droplets. This advancement achieves three critical functionalities: efficient enrichment of bioaerosols, rapid particle capture, and high-precision measurement under controlled environmental conditions. Overall, this work established the technique of direct collection of bioaerosols into a convenient droplet microfluidic platform for detection.