Non-spherical gelatin particle in two phases microfluidic system

Microfluidics has been widely exploited to perform chemical reactions under highly controlled environment (physical and chemical). In fact, microfluidics controls the size and shape of the particles and scales down the time of the diffusion, mixing and reaction. This paper reports a novel attempt to crosslink non-spherical particles (NSP) in one-step process. Here we perform crosslink and hardening reaction of gelatin by formaldehyde inside a simple microfluidic reactor by immiscibile liquid mixing within nanoliter plug-based microfluidic device. In doing so, we create multi-component droplets that along the channel are first mixed and then hardened and crosslinked. The collected particles displays a dispersion lower than 1%.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights• We design and fabricate a microfluidic reactor to prepare NSP. • We form plugs in microfluidic channels as discontinuous phase in fluorinated oil. • We collected NSP from native gelatin. • We characterize the NSPs in term of crosslink and length.