Microfluidics for Polymer Microparticles: Opinion on Sustainability and Scalability

Abstract

The microfluidic production of simple (microspheres) and core–shell (microcapsules) polymer microparticles, often called microencapsulation, has been the scope of several research works since the 1980s. It is a fast, thrifty, and efficient process because of its controlled properties, tuneability, and yield, which can reach 100%. However, the question of its greenness, sustainability, and scalability remains unclear, and more awareness/education is required in this field. The sustainability of production processes using microfluidic techniques can be realized/discussed based on three pillars: (i) waste generation, (ii) the solvents employed, and (iii) raw materials. On the other hand, although the scaling-up of these processes was reported on in several papers as procedures in which hundreds or thousands of microfluidic chips are set in parallel, the sustainability of this scale-up has not been addressed to our knowledge. This opinion paper highlights the advantages of microfluidic encapsulation processes, their greenness according to the above-mentioned pillars, (i–iii) and the necessary considerations to scale them up while preserving their sustainability.