Fluidic Microprocessors for Material Assembly

我们提出了旨在创造、表征和利用有组织材料的微流控方法。具有与其功能密切相关的空间不均匀组成的软材料在自然界中很常见，并且通常具有从数百纳米到几毫米的长度尺度的分级结构。目前可用于制造具有有序微结构的平面软材料的方法以两种方式模拟自然的能力：通过最初制备构件并随后沿着流体界面组装它们，以及通过平面微制造。这些策略需要一系列的处理步骤，并且往往缺乏时空控制。我们提出了一步法制备具有时空变化组成的平面和三维水凝胶，这是通过一个扩展的微流控装置实现的。获得的马赛克水凝胶将允许胶体或大分子有效载荷在同一凝胶基质中的本地存储或时间释放。不同凝胶的镶嵌将导致马赛克硬度和漫射率图案。我们的策略提供了平面软材料的形成，并对材料成分进行了精确的时空控制。我们设想我们的方法最终能够实现软材料和设备的流动生产，用于各种应用，包括细胞(共)培养和再生医学。

We propose microfluidic approaches that aim at creating, characterizing and utilizing organized materials. Soft materials with a spatially non-uniform composition that is closely linked to their function are common in nature and often possess a hierarchical architecture with length scales ranging from hundreds of nanometers to several millimetres. Currently available means for creating planar soft materials with an organized microstructure mimic nature's ability in two ways: by initially preparing building blocks and subsequently assembling them along fluid interfaces, and by planar microfabrication. These strategies necessitate a sequence of processing steps and often lack spatiotemporal control. We propose the one-step preparation of planar and three-dimensional hydrogels with a spatiotemporally varying composition that is enabled by a scaled-out microfluidic device. The obtained mosaic hydrogels will allow for the local storage or the time-release of a colloidal or macromolecular payload within the same gel matrix. Tessellations of different gels will lead to mosaic stiffness and diffusivity patterns. Our strategy offers the formation of planar soft materials with precise spatiotemporal control over the material composition. We envision our approach to ultimately enable the in-flow production of soft materials and devices for a variety of applications including cell (co-)culture and regenerative medicine.