Large-scale production of compound bubbles using parallelized microfluidics for efficient extraction of metal ions

Recent advances in microfluidic technologies have enabled production of micro-scale compound bubbles that consist of gaseous cores surrounded by thin liquid shells, achieving control and uniformity not possible using conventional techniques. These compound bubbles have demonstrated enormous utility as functional materials for drug delivery, as ultra-lightweight structural materials, as engineered acoustic materials, and also as separating agents for extraction of metal ions from waste fluid streams. Despite these successful demonstrations, compound bubbles have largely remained at the laboratory-scale due to the slow production rates endemic to microfluidics (