Functional hydrogel structures for autonomous flow control inside microfluidic channels
Hydrogels have been developed to respond to a wide variety of stimuli, but their use in macroscopic systems has been hindered by slow response times (diffusion being the rate-limiting factor governing the swelling process). However, there are many natural examples of chemically driven actuation that...
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Published in | Nature (London) Vol. 404; no. 6778; pp. 588 - 590 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing
06.04.2000
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Hydrogels have been developed to respond to a wide variety of stimuli, but their use in macroscopic systems has been hindered
by slow response times (diffusion being the rate-limiting factor governing
the swelling process). However, there are many natural examples of chemically
driven actuation that rely on short diffusion paths to produce a rapid response. It is therefore expected that scaling down hydrogel objects to
the micrometre scale should greatly improve response times. At these scales,
stimuli-responsive hydrogels could enhance the capabilities of microfluidic
systems by allowing self-regulated flow control. Here we report the fabrication
of active hydrogel components inside microchannels via direct photopatterning
of a liquid phase. Our approach greatly simplifies system construction and
assembly as the functional components are fabricated in situ, and the
stimuli-responsive hydrogel components perform both sensing and actuation
functions. We demonstrate significantly improved response times (less than
10 seconds) in hydrogel valves capable of autonomous control of local flow. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 |
DOI: | 10.1038/35007047 |