Tunable spatial heterogeneity in structure and composition within aqueous microfluidic droplets |
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| Authors: | Hui Sophia Lee Su Wang Pengzhi Kun Yap Swee Alan Hatton T Khan Saif A |
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| Institution: | 1Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering Programme, Singapore-MIT Alliance, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576;2Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117576;3Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA |
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| Abstract: | In this paper, we demonstrate biphasic microfluidic droplets with broadly tunable internal structures, from simple near-equilibrium drop-in-drop morphologies to complex yet uniform non-equilibrium steady-state structures. The droplets contain an aqueous mixture of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dextran and are dispensed into an immiscible oil in a microfluidic T-junction device. Above a certain well-defined threshold droplet speed, the inner dextran-rich phase is "stirred" within the outer PEG-rich phase. The stirred polymer mixture is observed to exhibit a near continuum of speed and composition-dependent phase morphologies. There is increasing interest in the use of such aqueous two-phase systems in microfluidic devices for biomolecular applications in a variety of contexts. Our work presents a method to go beyond equilibrium phase morphologies in generating microfluidic "multiple" emulsions and at the same time raises the possibility of biochemical experimentation in benign yet complex biomimetic milieus. |
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