Functional hydrogel structures for autonomous flow control inside microfluidic channels
Functional hydrogel structures for autonomous flow control inside microfluidic channels
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DOI：
10.1038/35007047
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发表时间：
2000-04-06
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Jo, BH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Beebe, DJ;Moore, JS;Jo, BH
水凝胶已被开发用于响应各种刺激(1-6)，但它们在宏观系统中的应用因响应时间较慢而受阻(扩散是控制溶胀过程的限速因素)。然而，有许多依靠短扩散路径来产生快速反应的化学驱动的自然例子(7)。因此，预计将水凝胶对象缩小到微米级应该会大大缩短响应时间。在这些尺度上，刺激响应型水凝胶可以通过允许自我调节流动控制来增强微流控系统的能力。在这里，我们报道了在微通道内通过液体的直接光修饰来制备活性水凝胶组件。我们的方法极大地简化了系统的构建和组装，因为功能组件是在现场制造的，并且刺激响应水凝胶组件同时执行传感和驱动功能。我们证明，能够自主控制局部流量的水凝胶阀的响应时间显著缩短(不到10秒)。
Hydrogels have been developed to respond to a wide variety of stimuli(1-6), but their use in macroscopic systems has been hindered by slow response times (diffusion being the rate-limiting factor governing the swelling process). However, there are many natural examples of chemically driven actuation that rely on short diffusion paths to produce a rapid response(7). It is therefore expected that scaling down hydrogel objects to the micrometre scale should greatly improve response times. At these scales, stimuli-responsive hydrogels could enhance the capabilities of microfluidic systems by allowing self-regulated flow control. Here we report the fabrication of active hydrogel components inside microchannels via direct photopatterning of a liquid phase. Our approach greatly simplifies system construction and assembly as the functional components are fabricated in situ, and the stimuli-responsive hydrogel components perform both sensing and actuation functions. We demonstrate significantly improved response times (less than 10 seconds) in hydrogel valves capable of autonomous control of local flow.