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research article

Everything in its right place: controlling the local composition of hydrogels using microfluidic traps

Kessler, Michael  
•
Elettro, Herve  
•
Heimgartner, Isabelle
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December 21, 2020
Lab On A Chip

Many natural materials display locally varying compositions that impart unique mechanical properties to them which are still unmatched by manmade counterparts. Synthetic materials often possess structures that are well-defined on the molecular level, but poorly defined on the microscale. A fundamental difference that leads to this dissimilarity between natural and synthetic materials is their processing. Many natural materials are assembled from compartmentalized reagents that are released in well-defined and spatially confined regions, resulting in locally varying compositions. By contrast, synthetic materials are typically processed in bulk. Inspired by nature, we introduce a drop-based technique that enables the design of microstructured hydrogel sheets possessing tuneable locally varying compositions. This control in the spatial composition and microstructure is achieved with a microfluidic Hele-Shaw cell that possesses traps with varying trapping strengths to selectively immobilize different types of drops. This modular platform is not limited to the fabrication of hydrogels but can be employed for any material that can be processed into drops and solidified within them. It likely opens up new possibilities for the design of structured, load-bearing hydrogels, as well as for the next generation of soft actuators and sensors.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1039/d0lc00691b
Web of Science ID

WOS:000599063600006

Author(s)
Kessler, Michael  
Elettro, Herve  
Heimgartner, Isabelle
Madasu, Soujanya
Brakke, Kenneth A.
Gallaire, Francois  
Amstad, Esther  
Date Issued

2020-12-21

Publisher

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

Published in
Lab On A Chip
Volume

20

Issue

24

Start page

4572

End page

4581

Subjects

Biochemical Research Methods

•

Chemistry, Multidisciplinary

•

Chemistry, Analytical

•

Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

•

Instruments & Instrumentation

•

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

•

Chemistry

•

Science & Technology - Other Topics

•

manipulation

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
SMAL  
LFMI  
Available on Infoscience
December 30, 2020
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/174351
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