Transformable bubble-filled alginate microfibers via vertical microfluidics

A novel buoyancy-assisted vertical microfluidic setup has been developed to fabricate a new class of transformable bubble-filled hydrogel microfibers. A co-axial flow of an aqueous sodium-alginate solution enveloping an air phase was injected into a quiescent aqueous CaCl 2 solution, through a verti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Lab on a chip 2019-02, Vol.19 (5), p.851-863
Main Authors: Chaurasia, Ankur Shubhlal, Sajjadi, Shahriar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air bubbles
Alginates
Axial flow
Bubbles
Buoyancy
Calcium chloride
Gelation
Hydrogels
Microfibers
Microfluidics
Morphology
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Summary:A novel buoyancy-assisted vertical microfluidic setup has been developed to fabricate a new class of transformable bubble-filled hydrogel microfibers. A co-axial flow of an aqueous sodium-alginate solution enveloping an air phase was injected into a quiescent aqueous CaCl 2 solution, through a vertically-oriented co-axial glass-capillary setup. This induced instantaneous gelation and produced bubble-filled calcium-alginate fibers. The surface-morphology of the resulting fibers was controlled from smooth to wavy by slowing down the gelation kinetics. The advantage of the buoyancy force acting on the fibers by the trapped air bubbles was taken not only to shape the fibers, but to transform them into several other novel hydrogel structures, such as water-filled segmented fibers, beaded microfibers, and threaded capsules. The ultimate transformability was demonstrated by the fibers being allowed to elongate and then undergo controlled destruction to produce uniform anisotropic micro-particles with a wide range of sizes and shapes from frustums to barrel and cylindrical types. The buoyancy force acting on fibers in a vertical microfluidic setup was utilized to form transformable air-filled hydrogel microfibers and microparticles.
ISSN:1473-0197
1473-0189
DOI:10.1039/c8lc01081a