Tuna-step: tunable parallelized step emulsification for the generation of droplets with dynamic volume control to 3D print functionally graded porous materials

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dc.contributor.authorNalin, Francesco
dc.contributor.authorTirelli, Maria Celeste
dc.contributor.authorGarstecki, Piotr
dc.contributor.authorPostek, Witold
dc.contributor.authorCostantini, Marco
dc.contributor.organizationInstitute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciencesen
dc.contributor.organizationBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, USAen
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-08T17:05:38Z
dc.date.available2023-12-08T17:05:38Z
dc.date.issued2023-11-27
dc.description.abstractWe present tuna-step, a novel microfluidic module based on step emulsification that allows for reliable generation of droplets of different sizes. Until now, sizes of droplets generated with step emulsification were hard-wired into the geometry of the step emulsification nozzle. To overcome this, we incorporate a thin membrane underneath the step nozzle that can be actuated by pressure, enabling the tuning of the nozzle size on-demand. By controllably reducing the height of the nozzle, we successfully achieved a three-order-of-magnitude variation in droplet volume without adjusting the flow rates of the two phases. We developed and applied a new hydrophilic surface modification, that ensured long-term stability and prevented swelling of the device when generating oil-in-water droplets. Our system produced functionally graded soft materials with adjustable porosity and material content. By combining our microfluidic device with a custom 3D printer, we generated and extruded oil-in-water emulsions in an agarose gel bath, creating unique self-standing 3D hydrogel structures with porosity decoupled from flow rate and with composition gradients of external phases. We upscaled tuna-step by setting 14 actuatable nozzles in parallel, offering a step-emulsification-based single chip solution that can accommodate various requirements in terms of throughput, droplet volumes, flow rates, and surface chemistry.en
dc.description.sponsorshipThis article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no 813786 (EVOdrops). M. C. and M. C. T. acknowledge the funding from the National Science Centre Poland (NCN) within OPUS 19 project no. 2020/37/B/ST8/ 02167. W. P. was supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) through the Bekker Programme, grant no. PPN/BEK/2020/1/00333/U/00001. W. P. was supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) with the START 069.2021 scholarship. P. G. acknowledges the support from the National Science Centre, Poland, funding based on decision 2018/30/A/ST4/00036, Maestro 10.en
dc.identifier.citationLab Chip, 2024, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/d3lc00658aen
dc.identifier.doi10.1039/d3lc00658a
dc.identifier.urihttps://open.icm.edu.pl/handle/123456789/23314
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherRoyal Society of Chemistryen
dc.relation813786en
dc.rightsUznanie autorstwa 3.0 Polska*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/pl/*
dc.subjectmicrofluidicsen
dc.subject3D printingen
dc.subjectstep emulsificationen
dc.subjectporous materialsen
dc.subjecthydrogelen
dc.subjectlab on a chipen
dc.titleTuna-step: tunable parallelized step emulsification for the generation of droplets with dynamic volume control to 3D print functionally graded porous materialsen
dc.typearticleen
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