1 research outputs found
Continuously Electrotriggered Core Coalescence of Double-Emulsion Drops for Microreactions
Microfluidically
generated double emulsions are promising templates for microreactions,
which protect the reaction from external disturbance and enable in
vitro analyses with large-scale samples. Controlled combination of
their inner droplets in a continuous manner is an essential requirement
toward truly applications. Here, we first generate dual-cored double-emulsion
drops with different inner encapsulants using a capillary microfluidic
device; next, we transfer the emulsion drops into another electrode-integrated
polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic device and utilize external AC electric
field to continuously trigger the coalescence of inner cores inside
these emulsion drops in continuous flow. Hundreds of thousands of
monodisperse microreactions with nanoliter-scale reagents can be conducted
using this approach. The performance of core coalescence is investigated
as a function of flow rate, applied electrical signal, and core conductivity.
The coalescence efficiency can reach up to 95%. We demonstrate the
utility of this technology for accommodating microreactions by analyzing
an enzyme catalyzed reaction and by fabricating cell-laden hydrogel
particles. The presented method can be readily used for the controlled
triggering of microreactions with high flexibility for a wide range
of applications, especially for continuous chemical or cell assays