Fabrication of Microparticles with Front-Back Asymmetric Shapes Using Anisotropic Gelation.

ABSTRACT: Droplet-based microfluidics is a powerful tool for producing monodispersed micrometer-sized droplets with controlled sizes and shapes; thus, it has been widely applied in diverse fields from fundamental science to industries. Toward a simpler method for fabricating microparticles with front-back asymmetry in their shapes, we studied anisotropic gelation of alginate droplets, which occurs inside a flow-focusing microfluidic device. In the proposed method, sodium alginate (NaAlg) aqueous phase fused with a calcium chloride (CaCl2) emulsion dispersed in the organic phase just before the aqueous phase breaks up into the droplets. The fused droplet with a front-back asymmetric shape was generated, and the asymmetric shape was kept after geometrical confinement by a narrow microchannel was remov

SUBMITTER: Lee D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8466830 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature