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Magnetic Field-assisted Fabrication and Manipulation of Non-Spherical Polymer Particles in Ferrofluid-based Droplet Microfluidics

Detailed Technology Description
The inventionis a method-device combination for the reproducible fabrication ofmicroparticles for drug-delivery, bioimaging, biometrics and special tagging,among other buses. Non-spherical particles are beneficial fordrug delivery, bioimaging and biometrics due to their large surface area. Thedominant shape of polymer particles has been spherical because of the difficultyof manufacturing large quantities of monodispersed particles with tunableshapes and sizes. This process controls the shape and assembly of polymerdroplets within a flow-focusing droplet microfluidic device to formnon-spherical particles and chains. The method relies on water-based magneticliquid (ferrofluid) as a continuous phase to (1) induce droplet formation (2)controllably change the shape of droplets, and (3) assemble droplets intochains. These ferrofluids induce magnetic dipole movement within the droplets,making it possible for the droplets to deform to non-spherical shapes andassemble into chains of tunable lengths.
*Abstract

Placing thepolymers in a ferrofluid allows for manipulation of their shape, as well as creatingtunable length chains. When an external magnetic field gradient is applied, thenon-magnetic polymer droplets inside ferrofluids experience both magnetic andhydrodynamic drag forces. This force can be used to stretch the spherical shapeof droplets into ellipsoids of different sizes. Other shapes are also possiblewith different designs of magnetic field patterns. The ferrofluids also promotedipole-dipole interactions, leading to the assembly of linear chains withtunable lengths oriented along the magnetic field direction. In non-optimized,lab-scale process and using a single device, non-spherical droplets or chainscan be produced at a rate of 1000 per second. The method is scalable.

References and Intellectual Property

 

  • US Patent 8,721,936

  • Zhu, T., Cheng, R., Sheppard, G., Locklin, J.,Mao, L., “Magnetic-Field-Assisted Fabrication and Manipulation of NonsphericalPolymer Particles in Ferrofluid-Based Droplet Microfluidics”, Langmuir,2015
Country/Region
USA

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