Peanut-inspired anisotropic microparticles from microfluidics

Anisotropic microparticles with the shape of peanuts were fabricated through a novel microfluidic strategy, including microfluidic generation of droplet-containing fiber matrices and deformation of the droplets induced by stretching the fiber matrices. Through stretching the elastic fibers, encapsulated droplets were able to be deformed into peanut-like shapes, with their interconnected cores well-aligned in correspondence to the stretching direction. Peanut-shaped microparticles containing platinum and magnetic nanoparticles could also be generated and showed extraordinary controllable ability to work as microstirrers. These features strongly attested the versatility and promising values of the peanut-inspired anisotropic microparticles in a broad range of application fields.141