Shen Haixia, Wang Hao-Peng, Wang Cai-Feng, Zhu Liangliang, Li Qing, Chen Su
State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals and Functional Polymer Materials, Nanjing Tech University, No. 5 Xin Mofan Road, Nanjing, 210009, P. R. China.
Macromol Rapid Commun. 2021 Oct;42(19):e2100421. doi: 10.1002/marc.202100421. Epub 2021 Aug 6.
From the perspective of both fundamental and applied science, it is extremely advisable to develop a facile and feasible strategy for fabricating gels with defined structures. Herein, the authors report the rapid synthesis of patterned gels by conducting frontal polymerization (FP) at millimeter-scale (2 mm), where a series of microchannels, including linear-, parallel-, divergent-, snakelike-, circular- and concentric circular channels, were used. They have investigated the effect of various factors (monomer mass ratio, channel size, initiator concentration, and solvent content) on FP at millimeter-scale, along with the propagating rule of the front during FP in these microchannels. In addition, we developed a new microfluidic-assisted FP (MFP) strategy by combining the FP and microfluidic technique. Interestingly, the MFP can realize the production of hollow-structured gel in a rapid and continuous fashion, which have never been reported. Our work not only offers an effective pathway towards patterned gels by the microchannel-conformal FP, but also gives new insight into the continuous production of hollow-structured materials. Such a method will be beneficial for fabricating vessel and scaffold materials in a flexible, easy-to-perform, time and energy saving way.
从基础科学和应用科学的角度来看，开发一种简便可行的策略来制备具有特定结构的凝胶是非常可取的。在此，作者报告了通过在毫米尺度（2毫米）上进行前沿聚合（FP）快速合成图案化凝胶，其中使用了一系列微通道，包括线性、平行、发散、蛇形、圆形和同心圆通道。他们研究了各种因素（单体质量比、通道尺寸、引发剂浓度和溶剂含量）对毫米尺度前沿聚合的影响，以及前沿在这些微通道中前沿聚合过程中的传播规律。此外，我们通过将前沿聚合与微流控技术相结合，开发了一种新的微流控辅助前沿聚合（MFP）策略。有趣的是，MFP能够以快速连续的方式实现中空结构凝胶的制备，这是从未有过报道的。我们的工作不仅为通过微通道共形前沿聚合制备图案化凝胶提供了一条有效途径，还为中空结构材料的连续制备提供了新的见解。这种方法将有利于以灵活、易于操作、节省时间和能源的方式制造血管和支架材料。
