Microfluidic fabrication of water-in-water droplets encapsulated in hydrogel microfibers

作     者：Chenguang Liu Wenchen Zheng Ruoxiao Xie Yupeng Liu Zhe Liang Guoan Luo Mingyu Ding Qionglin Liang 

作者机构：Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education) Beijing Key Laboratory of Microanalytical Methods ξ Instrumentation Department of Chemistry Tsinghua University State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine Macao Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health Macao University of Science and Technology 

出 版 物：《Chinese Chemical Letters》 (中国化学快报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2019年第30卷第2期

页      面：457-460页

核心收录：

学科分类：081704[工学-应用化学] 07[理学] 070304[理学-物理化学(含∶化学物理)] 08[工学] 0817[工学-化学工程与技术] 0703[理学-化学] 

基　　金：financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81872835, 21621003) Ministry of Science and Technology (Nos. 2017YFC0906902 and 2017ZX09301032) Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (No. 129/2017/A3) 

主　　题：Microfluidics Water-in-water droplets Droplet fibers Intercellular communication Water remediation 

摘      要：Aqueous microdroplets are of significant interest in biological fields, while the employment of water-inoil (w/o) emulsion and lack of spatial control precluded its widespread application. Herein a novel microfluidic approach is developed to generate water-in-water (w/w) microdroplets embedded in hydrogel microfibers. Aqueous two phase system (ATPS) is applied to generate w/w droplets, and alginate is introduced to continuous phase to form microfibers, which offers spatial restriction and manipulation possibility to droplets. The size and pattern of aqueous droplets can be precisely controlled, and immobilization within hydrogel fiber facilitates easy manipulation and observation. The microdroplets surrounded by hydrophilic environment can act as a cell-cell interaction model, and their potential for biological and environmental applications are demonstrated by long-term culture of encapsulated cells and water remediation of Bacillus subtilis.