Mele Elisa, Bayer Ilker S, Nanni Gabriele, Heredia-Guerrero José Alejandro, Ruffilli Roberta, Ayadi Farouk, Marini Lara, Cingolani Roberto, Athanassiou Athanassia
Nanophysics, and ‡Nanochemistry, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) , Via Morego 30, 16163 Genoa, Italy.
Langmuir. 2014 Mar 18;30(10):2896-902. doi: 10.1021/la4048177. Epub 2014 Mar 7.
Technologies that are able to handle microvolumes of liquids, such as microfluidics and liquid marbles, are attractive for applications that include miniaturized biological and chemical reactors, sensors, microactuators, and drug delivery systems. Inspired from natural fibrous envelopes, here, we present an innovative approach for liquid encapsulation and manipulation using electrospun nanofibers. We demonstrated the realization of non-wetting soft solids consisting of a liquid core wrapped in a hydrophobic fibrillar cloak of a fluoroacrylic copolymer and cellulose acetate. By properly controlling the wetting and mechanical properties of the fibers, we created final architectures with tunable mechanical robustness that were stable on a wide range of substrates (from paper to glass) and floated on liquid surfaces. Remarkably, the realized fiber-coated drops endured vortex mixing in a continuous oil phase at high stirring speed without bursting or water losses, favoring mixing processes inside the entrapped liquid volume. Moreover, the produced cloak can be easily functionalized by incorporating functional particles, active molecules, or drugs inside the nanofibers.
能够处理微量液体的技术，如微流体技术和液体弹珠，对于包括小型化生物和化学反应器、传感器、微致动器以及药物输送系统在内的应用具有吸引力。受天然纤维包膜的启发，在此我们提出一种使用电纺纳米纤维进行液体封装和操控的创新方法。我们展示了由包裹在氟丙烯酸共聚物和醋酸纤维素疏水纤维状外衣中的液芯组成的非润湿性软固体的实现。通过适当控制纤维的润湿性和机械性能，我们创建了具有可调机械强度的最终结构，这些结构在从纸张到玻璃的各种基材上都很稳定，并能漂浮在液体表面。值得注意的是，所实现的纤维包覆液滴在连续油相中以高搅拌速度经受涡旋混合而不会破裂或失水，有利于被困液体体积内的混合过程。此外，通过在纳米纤维中掺入功能颗粒、活性分子或药物，可以轻松地对所产生的外衣进行功能化。
