Advanced materials based on microfluidic devices

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There are considerable demands for advanced functional materials in fast growing biological and optical industries where enhanced or novel material properties are required and should be precisely and simply tunable. Polymeric microparticles are becoming an essential component for emerging applications such as photonic materials, self-assembly, and biomaterials (for tissue engineering, drug/gene delivery, and bioseparation). Microfluidics (manipulation of fluids at a micro scale) has emerged as a very promising route to generate microparticles with enhanced features (monodispersity, rich shape, and multi-functionality) and excellent control over material properties. In addition to material synthesis, microfluidics offers great potential for mimicking/investigating biological fluidic processes such as spider silk spinning, in which natural fibers with superior mechanical properties are generated in benign conditions. The overall objectives of this research program are to (1) fabricate advanced functional microparticles (particles between 0.1 and 100 microns in size) for a variety of uses in biological and environmental applications; and (2) develop miniaturized devices (lab-on-a-chip) to investigate/mimic biological fluidic processes, such as spider silk spinning. The proposed research program will have several significant outcomes, including (i) the creation of novel and advanced microparticles, (ii) the development of new miniaturized devices for advanced microparticles and biologically complex fluids, and (iii) the development of models and the characterization of microstructure formation at micro/nano scales. These outcomes will offer major benefits in diverse fundamental studies and emerging applications, and will accelerate scientific understanding of the formation of microstructures found in nature.