Generation of alginate microfibers with a roller-assisted microfluidic system.
This work describes a convenient microfluidic strategy with a simple and minimal-requirement design for the generation of uniformly-sized alginate gel fibers with diameters one order of magnitude smaller than those formed in conventional methods. Different from common microfluidic methods, our system contains a single microchannel through which alginate solutions are transported and squeezed into a calcium chloride solution. Ca2+ ions immediately cross link the alginate solution into a gel state that is collected with a rotor. We use microchannels to define the initial size of the alginate fibers and a roller to further reduce the fiber size (diameter) by one order of magnitude down to approximately 1 microm. The size of the formed fibers can be well controlled by adjusting the corresponding parameters, and be predicted with a simple equation. In addition, various functional materials (colloidal particles, bacteria and nanoparticles) have been encapsulated into the gel fibers with this technique.
Su
Jing
J
Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Zheng
Yizhe
Y
Wu
Hongkai
H
D000464:Alginates / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002122:Calcium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D010316:Particle Size; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry
D000464:Alginates; D012996:Solutions; D002122:Calcium Chloride