An electro-coalescence chip for effective emulsion breaking in droplet microfluidics.

Droplet-based microfluidics is increasingly used for biological applications, where the recovery of cells or particles after an experiment or assay is desirable. Here, we present an electro-demulsification chip which circumvents the use of harsh chemicals and multiple washing/centrifugation steps and offers a mild way for extracting cells and polymer particles into an aqueous phase from microfluidic water-in-oil emulsions.