Microfluidic generation of hollow Ca-alginate microfibers

Abstract

This work reports on an efficient microfluidic approach for continuous production of hollow Ca-alginate microfibers with controllable structures and functions. A coaxial microcapillary microfluidic device combined with a rotator is constructed to produce a cylindrical flow jet with four aqueous solutions as templates for continuous fabrication and collection of microfibers. A four-aqueous-phase flow jet with an intermediate buffer flow between the Ca²⁺-containing and alginate-containing flows is used as the template for microfiber fabrication. The buffer flow efficiently controls the diffusion of Ca²⁺ into the alginate-containing flow as well as the crosslinking reaction, thus ensuring the continuous fabrication of hollow Ca-alginate microfibers under relatively low flow rates without clogging of the microchannel. The structure of the hollow microfibers can be flexibly adjusted by changing the flow rates and device dimensions. Meanwhile, the continuous fabrication process of the microfibers allows flexible incorporation of a functional component into the sheath flow for functionalization and addition of active substances in the core flow for encapsulation. This is demonstrated by fabricating hollow Ca-alginate microfibers with a wall containing magnetic nanoparticles for magnetic functionalization and with hollow internals containing Chlorella pyrenoidosa cells for confined growth. This work provides an efficient strategy for continuous fabrication of functional hollow Ca-alginate microfibers with controllable structures and functions.