Hu Minghan, Shen Xueting, Tran Daniel, Ma Zhongqi, Isa Lucio
Laboratory for Soft Materials and Interfaces, Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
J Phys Condens Matter. 2023 Jul 31;35(43). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ace871.
Artificial microswimmers, i.e. colloidal scale objects capable of self-propulsion, have garnered significant attention due to their central role as models for out of equilibrium systems. Moreover, their potential applications in diverse fields such as biomedicine, environmental remediation, and materials science have long been hypothesized, often in conjunction with their ability to deliver cargoes to overcome mass transport limitations. A very efficient way to load molecular cargoes is to disperse them in a liquid compartment, however, fabricating microswimmers with multiple liquid compartments remains a significant challenge. To address this challenge, we present a modular fabrication platform that combines microfluidic synthesis and sequential capillarity-assisted particle assembly (sCAPA) for microswimmers with various liquid compartments. We demonstrate the synthesis of monodisperse, small polymer-based microcapsules (Ø = 3-6m) with different liquid cargoes using a flow-focusing microfluidic device. By employing the sCAPA technique, we assemble multiple microcapsules into microswimmers with high precision, resulting in versatile microswimmers with multiple liquid compartments and programmable functionalities. Our work provides a flexible approach for the fabrication of modular microswimmers, which could potentially actively transport cargoes and release them on demand in the future.
人工微游动体，即能够自我推进的胶体尺度物体，因其作为非平衡系统模型的核心作用而备受关注。此外，长期以来人们一直推测它们在生物医学、环境修复和材料科学等不同领域的潜在应用，这通常与它们输送货物以克服传质限制的能力有关。一种非常有效的加载分子货物的方法是将它们分散在液体隔室中，然而，制造具有多个液体隔室的微游动体仍然是一个重大挑战。为了应对这一挑战，我们提出了一种模块化制造平台，该平台将微流控合成与顺序毛细作用辅助粒子组装（sCAPA）相结合，用于制造具有各种液体隔室的微游动体。我们展示了使用流动聚焦微流控装置合成具有不同液体货物的单分散、小型聚合物基微胶囊（Ø = 3 - 6μm）。通过采用sCAPA技术，我们将多个微胶囊高精度地组装成微游动体，从而得到具有多个液体隔室和可编程功能的多功能微游动体。我们的工作为模块化微游动体的制造提供了一种灵活的方法，未来可能会主动运输货物并按需释放它们。
