240 research outputs found

    Tailoring pH-responsive acrylic acid microgels with hydrophobic crosslinks for drug release

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    Amphiphilic microgels based on the hydrophilic acrylic acid (AA) and hydrophobic crosslinks of different compositions were synthesised using a lab-on-a-chip device. The microgels were formed by polymerising hydrophobic droplets. The droplets were generated via a microfluidic platform and contained a protected form of AA, a hydrophobic crosslinker (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, EGDMA) and a free radical initiator in an organic solvent. Following photopolymerisation and subsequent hydrolysis, AA based microgels of amphiphilic nature were produced and it was demonstrated that they can successfully deliver both hydrophilic as well as hydrophobic moieties. The model drug delivery and the swelling ability of the microgels were influenced by the pH of the aqueous solution as well as the crosslinking density and hydrophobic content of the microgels

    Microfluidically fabricated pH-responsive anionic amphiphilic microgels for drug release

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    © 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Amphiphilic microgels of different composition based on the hydrophilic, pH-responsive acrylic acid (AA) and the hydrophobic, non-ionic n-butyl acrylate (BuA) were synthesised using a lab-on-a-chip device. Hydrophobic droplets were generated via a microfluidic platform that contained a protected form of AA, BuA, the hydrophobic crosslinker, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), and a free radical initiator in an organic solvent. These hydrophobic droplets were photopolymerised within the microfluidic channels and subsequently hydrolysed, enabling an integrated platform for the rapid, automated, and in situ production of anionic amphiphilic microgels. The amphiphilic microgels did not feature the conventional core-shell structure but were instead based on random amphiphilic copolymers of AA and BuA and hydrophobic crosslinks. Due to their amphiphilic nature they were able to encapsulate and deliver both hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties. The model drug delivery and the swelling ability of the microgels were influenced by the pH of the surrounding aqueous solution and the hydrophobic content of the microgels

    Novel Microgels Fabricated On Microfluidic Devices

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    This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.Microgels are micrometer sized particles consisting of a polymer network that show potential for the delivery of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs. Microfluidic devices provide an excellent format for the generation of monodispersed droplets due to the precise manipulation of fluids and flow rates within the microchannels. Microfluidic droplet generation chips were therefore designed using T-junction and flow focusing geometries in glass. For microgel synthesis, monomers, crosslinker and initiator were added to the dispersed phase and water was used as the continuous phase. Controlled formation of monodisperse droplets was achieved with both geometries and droplets were collected off-chip for photopolymerisation. Three types of microgel were formed using this setup: poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate, poly(propylene glycol) diacrylate, and tetrahydropyran acrylate - ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (THPA-EGDMA) microgels. THPA is a novel material for microgels that can be turned from hydrophobic to amphiphilic by hydrolysation. THPA-EGDMA microgels in particular demonstrated a strong response to pH changes due to the build-up of electrostatic force under high pH, showing potential for the encapsulation and release of drugs

    Artificial leaf device for hydrogen generation from immobilised C. reinhardtii microalgae

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    We developed a fully biomimetic leaf-like device for hydrogen production which allows incorporated fabric-immobilised microalgae culture to be simultaneously hydrated with media and harvested from the produced hydrogen in a continuous flow regime without the need to replace the algal culture. Our leaf device produces hydrogen by direct photolysis of water resulting from redirecting the photosynthetic pathways in immobilised microalgae due to the lack of oxygen. In contrast to the many other reports in the literature on batch photobioreactors producing hydrogen from suspension culture of microalgae, we present the first report where this is done in a continuous manner from a fabric-immobilised microalgae culture. The reported artificial leaf device maximises the sunlight energy utilisation per gram of algae and can be upscaled cheaply and easily to cover large areas. We compared the production of hydrogen from both immobilised and suspended cultures of C. reinhardtii microalgae under sulphur, phosphorus and oxygen deprived conditions. The viability and potential of this approach is clearly demonstrated. Even though this is a first prototype, the hydrogen yield of our artificial leaf device is twenty times higher per gram of algae than in previously the reported batch reactors. Such leaf-like devices could potentially be made from flexible plastic sheets and installed on roofs and other sun-exposed surfaces that are inaccessible by photovoltaic cells. The ability to continuously produce inexpensive hydrogen by positioning inexpensive sheets onto any surface could have an enormous importance in the field of biofuels. The proposed new concept can provide a cleaner and very inexpensive way of bio-hydrogen generation by flexible sheet-like devices

    Generation and manipulation of magnetic droplets

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    This paper was presented at the 2nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2009), which was held at Brunel University, West London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IPEM, the Italian Union of Thermofluid dynamics, the Process Intensification Network, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.The continuous flow generation and downstream manipulation of magnetic droplets inside a microfluidic device was investigated. Magnetic droplets were generated from aqueous ferrofluids in organic oil phase using T-junction and flow-focusing geometries in glass microfluidic devices. Due to the hydrophilic nature of glass surfaces, it was necessary to apply a hydrophobic coating in the form fluorocarbons. The size of the magnetic droplets and distance between them were controlled by adjusting the relative flow velocities of ferrofluid and oil carrier liquid. Two modes of droplet manipulation were investigated by placing small permanent magnets in the vicinity of the microfluidic channels: (i) droplet deflection across a flow chamber which could be used for sorting of droplets based on the magnetic field applied and (ii) droplet splitting at a branching junction resulting in two daughter droplets of high and low magnetite content.This study is funded by The University of Kuwait

    The generation of multi-laminar reagent streams for rapid, sequential (bio)chemical reactions on magnetic particles in a continuous flow microreactor

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    This paper was presented at the 2nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2009), which was held at Brunel University, West London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IPEM, the Italian Union of Thermofluid dynamics, the Process Intensification Network, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.We demonstrate a versatile microfluidic system for performing rapid, consecutive (bio)chemical reactions in continuous flow. Surface-functionalised magnetic microparticles are introduced into a chamber and pulled, via a magnet, across a series of laminar flow streams containing different reagents, thus performing multiple sequential reactions on the particles’ surface. Such a continuous flow method eliminates many of the inefficiencies associated with batch techniques, such as the time-consuming, laborious sequential reaction and washing steps, to yield a system that can perform analyses far more rapidly and with less reagent volume than conventional methods. This innovative device has been applied to a two-reaction step mouse IgG sandwich immunoassay and one- and two-reaction step DNA hybridisation assays, all of which were completed within one minute. These results pave the way for a multi-purpose microreactor that can perform a variety of analytical and synthetic processes.This study is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

    Temperature-based tuning of magnetic particle separation by on-chip free-flow magnetophoresis

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    This paper was presented at the 2nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2009), which was held at Brunel University, West London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IPEM, the Italian Union of Thermofluid dynamics, the Process Intensification Network, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.Free-flow magnetophoresis provides a fast and efficient means of continuous flow magnetic separation for the detection of biological analytes, due to the wide variety of magnetic particle surface properties available for binding specific targets. Here, we investigate the effect of temperature changes on the deflection behaviour of magnetic particles in a microfluidic magnetophoresis separation chamber. It was found that the extent of deflection was greatly increased at higher temperatures due to decreased solution viscosity and thus reduced resistance against particle motion. This concept was used to improve the resolution of the separation of 2.8 μm and 1 μm diameter magnetic particles. Hence, controlling the temperature of the separation system provides a simple but highly effective means of enhancing magnetic separation efficiency. This concept could also be applied to the temperature-based tuning of microparticle trajectories in many others types of continuous flow processes, such as those using optical, electrical or acoustic forces.This study is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

    Microfluidic cell sorter with integrated piezoelectric actuator

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    We demonstrate a low-power (<0.1 mW), low-voltage (<10 Vp-p) on-chip piezoelectrically actuated micro-sorter that can deflect single particles and cells at high-speed. With rhodamine in the stream, switching of flow between channels can be visualized at high actuation frequency (~1.7 kHz). The magnitude of the cell deflection can be precisely controlled by the magnitude and waveform of input voltage. Both simulation and experimental results indicate that the drag force imposed on the suspended particle/cell by the instantaneous fluid displacement can alter the trajectory of the particle/cell of any size, shape, and density of interest in a controlled manner. The open-loop E. Coli cell deflection experiment demonstrates that the sorting mechanism can produce a throughput of at least 330 cells/s, with a promise of a significantly higher throughput for an optimized design. To achieve close-loop sorting operation, fluorescence detection, real-time signal processing, and field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) implementation of the control algorithms were developed to perform automated sorting of fluorescent beads. The preliminary results show error-free sorting at a sorting efficiency of ~70%. Since the piezoelectric actuator has an intrinsic response time of 0.1–1 ms and the sorting can be performed under high flowrate (particle speed of ~1–10 cm/s), the system can achieve a throughput of >1,000 particles/s with high purity

    Microfluidic device for the rapid coating of magnetic cells with polyelectrolytes

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    We demonstrate a rapid method of coating a layer of polymer onto magnetically modified yeast cells, so-called cyborg cells, in continuous flow within a microfluidic chamber. Laminar flow streams of polyelectrolyte and washing buffers were generated across the chamber, and the magnetic cells were deflected sequentially through the co-flowing streams via an external magnet, allowing polyelectrolyte deposition onto the cells immediately followed by the washing step, all in less than 90 s. This simple deposition technique shows promise for the functionalization of such cyborg cells for applications including bioelectronics, bioanalysis, and toxicity screening, while the addition of more reagent streams would enable the fabrication of multilayered capsules. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

    Magnetically actuated particle-based procedures in continuous flow

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    We demonstrate a versatile multilaminar flow microfluidic device in which magnetic particles are used as mobile supports for performing two important applications, namely (i) a clinically relevant sandwich immunoassay, and (ii) polye-lectrolyte coating of templates towards the fabrication of microcapsules for drug delivery applications. Furthermore, we demonstrate the use of a different force, diamagnetic repulsion, for deflecting polystyrene particles through a reagent stream with a view to performing multilaminar flow studies on diamagnetic material such as polymer particles and cells
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