Shape controllable microgel particles prepared by microfluidic combining external ionic crosslinking.
Alginate microgels with varied shapes, such as mushroom-like, hemi-spherical, red blood cell-like, and others, were generated by combining microfluidic and external ionic crosslinking methods. This novel method allows a continuous fine tuning of the microgel particles shape by simply varying the gelation conditions, e.g., viscosity of the gelation bath, collecting height, interfacial tension. The release behavior of iopamidol-loaded alginate microgel particles with varied morphologies shows significant differences. Our technique can also be extended to microgels formation from different anionic biopolymers, providing new opportunities to produce microgels with various anisotropic dimensions for the applications in drug delivery, optical devices, and in advanced materials formation.
Hubei Key Laboratory of Materials Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074 China.
Yuandu
Y
Hu
Qin
Q
Wang
Jianying
J
Wang
Jintao
J
Zhu
Hong
H
Wang
Yajiang
Y
Yang