On-line production of polyelectrolyte coating on monodisperse alginate beads in an integrated microfluidic cartridge

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Continuous flow microfluidic devices have appeared to be a promising technology to automatise Polyelectrolytes multilayers (PEMs) coating on microbeads with repeatable and reliable results. However, no microfluidic devices have demonstrated PEMs coating on hydrogel beads yet. Here we introduce a new automated continuous flow microfluidic platform dedicated to the production of PEMs coated on monodispersed alginate beads. Microfluidic cartridges, based on a hybrid technology, are composed of two silicon chips bonded on a COC plate. Microfluidic channels are dry-etched with standard microelectronic technologies into silicon chips and grinded in plastic substrate. This microfluidic cartridge includes a micro-flow-focusing module to allow the generation of alginate inverse emulsion, a module to transfer the alginate droplets from oil to an aqueous calcium-based gelling solution and a multilaminar flow pillars chamber module to coat Poly-allylamine hydrochloride (PAH) solution. As a result, both optical and confocal microscopes images of monodisperse beads coated with one layer of covalently bonded fluorescent PAH are presented.

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Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Nanotechnology 2014: MEMS, Fluidics, Bio Systems, Medical, Computational & Photonics
Published: June 15, 2014
Pages: 121 - 124
Industry sectors: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing | Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topic: Inkjet Design, Materials & Fabrication
ISBN: 978-1-4822-5827-1