Cleat serves as the primary flow pathway for coalbed methane(CBM)and water.However,few studies consider the impact of local contact on two-phase flow within cleats.A visual generalized model of endogenous cleats was c...Cleat serves as the primary flow pathway for coalbed methane(CBM)and water.However,few studies consider the impact of local contact on two-phase flow within cleats.A visual generalized model of endogenous cleats was constructed based on microfluidics.A microscopic and mesoscopic observation technique was proposed to simultaneously capture gas-liquid interface morphology of pores and throat and the two-phase flow characteristics in entire cleat system.The local contact characteristics of cleats reduced absolute permeability,which resulted in a sharp increase in the starting pressure.The reduced gas flow capacity narrowed the co-infiltration area and decreased water saturation at the isotonic point in a hydrophilic environment.The increased local contact area of cleats weakened gas phase flow capacity and narrowed the co-infiltration area.Jumping events occurred in methane-water flow due to altered porosity caused by local contact in cleats.The distribution of residual phases changed the jumping direction on the micro-scale as well as the dominant channel on the mesoscale.Besides,jumping events caused additional energy dissipation,which was ignored in traditional two-phase flow models.This might contribute to the overestimation of relative permeability.The work provides new methods and insights for investigating unsaturated flow in complex porous media.展开更多
Due to the rapid development and potential applications of iron(Ⅲ)-alginate(Fe-Alg)microgels in biomedical as well as environmental engineering,this study explores the preparation and characterization of spherical Fe...Due to the rapid development and potential applications of iron(Ⅲ)-alginate(Fe-Alg)microgels in biomedical as well as environmental engineering,this study explores the preparation and characterization of spherical Fe-Alg microgels using droplet microfluidics combined with an external ionic crosslinking method.This study focused on the role of Fe^(3+)and examined its effects on the physical/chemical properties of microgels under different ionic conditions and reduced or oxidized states.The pH-dependent release behavior of Fe^(3+)from these microgels demonstrates their potential biomedical and environmental applications.Furthermore,the microgels can exhibit magnetism simply by utilizing in situ oxidation,which can be further used for targeted drug delivery and magnetic separation technologies.展开更多
Energetic materials,characterized by their capacity to store and release substantial energy,hold pivotal significance in some fields,particularly in defense applications.Microfluidics,with its ability to manipulate fl...Energetic materials,characterized by their capacity to store and release substantial energy,hold pivotal significance in some fields,particularly in defense applications.Microfluidics,with its ability to manipulate fluids and facilitate droplet formation at the microscale,enables precise control of chemical reactions.Recent scholarly endeavors have increasingly harnessed microfluidic reactors in the realm of energetic materials,yielding morphologically controllable particles with enhanced uniformity and explosive efficacy.However,crucial insights into microfluidic-based methodologies are dispersed across various publications,necessitating a systematic compilation.Accordingly,this review addresses this gap by concentrating on the synthesis of energetic materials through microfluidics.Specifically,the methods based on micro-mixing and droplets in the previous papers are summarized and the strategies to control the critical parameters within chemical reactions are discussed in detail.Then,the comparison in terms of advantages and disadvantages is attempted.As demonstrated in the last section regarding perspectives,challenges such as clogging,dead zones,and suboptimal production yields are non-ignoble in the promising fields and they might be addressed by integrating sound,optics,or electrical energy to meet heightened requirements.This comprehensive overview aims to consolidate and analyze the diverse array of microfluidic approaches in energetic material synthesis,offering valuable insights for future research directions.展开更多
Microfluidic devices are composed of microchannels with a diameter ranging from ten to a few hundred micrometers.Thus,quite a small(10-9–10-18l)amount of liquid can be manipulated by such a precise system.In the past...Microfluidic devices are composed of microchannels with a diameter ranging from ten to a few hundred micrometers.Thus,quite a small(10-9–10-18l)amount of liquid can be manipulated by such a precise system.In the past three decades,significant progress in materials science,microfabrication,and various applications has boosted the development of promising functional microfluidic devices.In this review,the recent progress on novel microfluidic devices with various functions and applications is presented.First,the theory and numerical methods for studying the performance of microfluidic devices are briefly introduced.Then,materials and fabrication methods of functional microfluidic devices are summarized.Next,the recent significant advances in applications of microfluidic devices are highlighted,including heat sinks,clean water production,chemical reactions,sensors,biomedicine,capillaric circuits,wearable electronic devices,and microrobotics.Finally,perspectives on the challenges and future developments of functional microfluidic devices are presented.This review aims to inspire researchers from various fields engineering,materials,chemistry,mathematics,physics,and more—to collaborate and drive forward the development and applications of functional microfluidic devices,specifically for achieving carbon neutrality.展开更多
Multiphase microfluidic has emerged as a powerful platform to produce novel materials with tailor-designed functionalities,as microfluidic fabrication provides precise controls over the size,component,and structure of...Multiphase microfluidic has emerged as a powerful platform to produce novel materials with tailor-designed functionalities,as microfluidic fabrication provides precise controls over the size,component,and structure of resultant materials.Recently,functional materials with well-defined micro-/nanostructures fabricated by microfluidics find important applications as environmental and energy materials.This review first illustrated in detail how different structures or shapes of droplet and jet templates are formed by typical configurations of microfluidic channel networks and multiphase flow systems.Subsequently,recent progresses on several representative energy and environmental applications,such as water purification,water collecting and energy storage,were overviewed.Finally,it is envisioned that integrating microfluidics and other novel materials will play increasing important role in contributing environmental remediation and energy storage in near future.展开更多
Microproteomics, the profiling of protein expressions in small cell populations or individual cells, is essential for understanding complex biological systems. However, sample loss and insufficient sensitivity of anal...Microproteomics, the profiling of protein expressions in small cell populations or individual cells, is essential for understanding complex biological systems. However, sample loss and insufficient sensitivity of analytical techniques pose severe challenges to this field. Microfluidics, particularly droplet-based microfluidics, provides an ideal approach by enabling miniaturized and integrated workflows to process samples and offers several advantages, including reduced sample loss, low reagent consumption, faster reaction times, and improved throughput. Droplet-based microfluidics manipulates droplets of fluids to function as discrete reaction units, enabling complex chemical reactions and biological workflows in a miniaturized setting. This article discusses a variety of on-chip functions of droplet-based microfluidics,including cell sorting, cell culture, and sample processing. We then highlight recent advances in the mass spectrometry(MS)-based analysis of single cells using droplet-based microfluidic platforms, including digital microfluidics(DMF). Finally, we review the integrated DMF–MS systems that enable automated and parallel proteomic profiling of single cells with high sensitivity and discuss the applications of the technology and its future perspectives.展开更多
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS)microfluidic system,which enables rapid detection of chemical and biological analytes,offers an effective platform to monitor various food contaminants and disease diagnoses.Th...Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS)microfluidic system,which enables rapid detection of chemical and biological analytes,offers an effective platform to monitor various food contaminants and disease diagnoses.The efficacy of SERS microfluidic systems is greatly dependent on the sensitivity and reusability of SERS detection substrates to ensure repeated use for prolonged periods.This study proposed a novel process of femtosecond laser nanoparticle array(NPA)implantation to achieve homogeneous forward transfer of gold NPA on a flexible polymer film and accurately integrated it within microfluidic chips for SERS detection.The implanted Au-NPA strips show a remarkable electromagnetic field enhancement with the factor of 9×108 during SERS detection of malachite green(MG)solution,achieving a detection limit lower than 10 ppt,far better than most laser-prepared SERS substrates.Furthermore,Au-NPA strips show excellent reusability after several physical and chemical cleaning,because of the robust embedment of laser-implanted NPA in flexible substrates.To demonstrate the performance of Au-NPA,a SERS microfluidic system is built to monitor the online oxidation reaction between MG/NaClO reactants,which helps infer the reaction path.The proposed method of nanoparticle implantation is more effective than the direct laser structuring technique.It provides better performance for SERS detection,robustness of detection,and substrate flexibility and has a wider range of applications for microfluidic systems without any negative impact.展开更多
Nano-TATB was developed in microchannels by physical method and chemical method,respectively.The effects of total flow rate,number of microreactor plates,solvent/non-solvent ratio and temperature on the particle size ...Nano-TATB was developed in microchannels by physical method and chemical method,respectively.The effects of total flow rate,number of microreactor plates,solvent/non-solvent ratio and temperature on the particle size of TATB in the physical method were studied.Prepared TATB were characterized by Nano Sizer,Scanning Electron Microscopy,Specific surface aperture analyzer,X-ray diffraction,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Differential Scanning Calorimetry.The results show that the TATB obtained by physical method and chemical method are spherical,with average particle size of 130.66 nm and 108.51 nm,respectively.Specific surface areas of TATB obtained by physical and chemical methods are 21.37 m^(2)/g and 21.91 m^(2)/g,respectively.Compared with the specific surface area of micro-TATB(0.0808 m^(2)/g),the specific surface area of nano-TATB is significantly increased.DSC test results show that the smaller the particle size of TATB,the lower the thermal decomposition temperature.In addition,by simulating the mixing state of fluid in microchannels and combining with the classical nucleation theory,the mechanism of preparing nano-TATB by microchannels was proposed.展开更多
Lightweight and mechanically strong natural silk fibers have been extensively investigated over the past decades.Inspired by this research,many artificial spinning techniques(wet spinning,dry spinning,electrospinning,...Lightweight and mechanically strong natural silk fibers have been extensively investigated over the past decades.Inspired by this research,many artificial spinning techniques(wet spinning,dry spinning,electrospinning,etc.)have been developed to fabricate robust protein fibers.As the traditional spinning methods provide poor control over the as-spun fibers,microfluidics has been integrated with these techniques to allow the fabrication of biological fibers in a well-designed manner,with simplicity and cost efficiency.The mechanical behavior of the developed fibers can be precisely modulated by controlling the type iop and size of microfluidic channel,flow rate,and shear force.This technique has been successfully used to manufacture a broad range of protein fibers,and can accelerate the production and application of protein fibers in various fields.This review outlines recent progress in the design and fabrication of protein-based fibers based on microfluidics.We first briefly discuss the natural spider silk-spinning process and the microfluidics spinning process.Next,the fabrication and mechanical properties of regenerated protein fibers via microfluidics are discussed,followed by a discussion of recombinant protein fibers.Other sourced protein fibers are also reviewed in detail.Finally,a brief outlook on the development of microfluidic technology for producing protein fibers is presented.展开更多
Circulating tumor cells(CTCs) are the cancer cells that circulate in the peripheral blood after escaping from the original or metastatic tumors. CTCs could be used as non-invasive source of clinical information in ear...Circulating tumor cells(CTCs) are the cancer cells that circulate in the peripheral blood after escaping from the original or metastatic tumors. CTCs could be used as non-invasive source of clinical information in early diagnosis of cancer and evaluation of cancer development. In recent years, CTC research has become a hotspot field wherein many novel CTC detection technologies based on microfluidics have been developed. Great advances have been made that exhibit obvious technical advantages, but cannot yet satisfy the current clinical requirements. In this study, we review the main advances in isolation and detection methods of CTC based on microfluidics research over several years, propose five technical indicators for evaluating these methods, and explore the application prospects. We also discuss the concepts, issues, approaches, advantages, limitations, and challenges with an aim of stimulating a broader interest in developing microfluidics-based CTC detection technology.展开更多
HNS-IV(Hexanitrostilbene-IV) is the main charge of the exploding foil initiators(EFI), and the microstructure of the HNS will directly affect its density, flowability, sensitivity, and stability. HNS microspheres were...HNS-IV(Hexanitrostilbene-IV) is the main charge of the exploding foil initiators(EFI), and the microstructure of the HNS will directly affect its density, flowability, sensitivity, and stability. HNS microspheres were prepared using droplet microfluidics, and the particle size, morphology, specific surface area, thermal performance, and ignition threshold of the HNS microspheres were characterized and tested. The results shown that the prepared HNS microspheres have high sphericity, with an average particle size of 20.52 μm(coefficient of variation less than 0.2), and a specific surface area of 21.62 m^(2)/g(6.87 m^(2)/g higher than the raw material). Without changing the crystal structure and thermal stability of HNS-IV, this method significantly enhances the sensitivity of HNS-IV to short pulses and reduces the ignition threshold of the slapper detonator to below 1000 V. This will contribute to the miniaturization and low cost of EFI.展开更多
Microfluidics has been considered as a potential technology to miniaturize the conventional equipments and technologies. It offers advantages in terms of small volume, low cost, short reaction time and highthroughput....Microfluidics has been considered as a potential technology to miniaturize the conventional equipments and technologies. It offers advantages in terms of small volume, low cost, short reaction time and highthroughput. The applications in biology and medicine research and related areas are almost the most extensive and profound. With the appropriate scale that matches the scales of cells, microfluidics is well positioned to contribute significantly to cell biology. Cell culture, fusion and apoptosis were successfully performed in microfluidics. Microfluidics provides unique opportunities for rare circulating tumor cells isolation and detection from the blood of patients, which furthers the discovery of cancer stem cell biomarkers and expands the understanding of the biology of metastasis. Nucleic acid amplification in microfluidics has extended to single-molecule, high-throughput and integration treatment in one chip. DNA computer which is based on the computational model of DNA biochemical reaction will come into practice from concept in the future. In addition, microfluidics offers a versatile platform for protein-protein interactions, protein crystallization and high-throughput screening. Although microfluidics is still in its infancy, its great potential has already been demonstrated and will provide novel solutions to the high-throughput applications.展开更多
Additive manufacturing plays a vital role in the food,mechanical,pharmaceutical,and medical fields.Within these fields,medical additive manufacturing has led to especially obvious improvements in medical instruments,p...Additive manufacturing plays a vital role in the food,mechanical,pharmaceutical,and medical fields.Within these fields,medical additive manufacturing has led to especially obvious improvements in medical instruments,prostheses,implants,and so forth,based on the advantages of cost-effectiveness,customizability,and quick manufacturing.With the features of precise structural control,high throughput,and good component manipulation,microfluidic techniques present distinctive benefits in medical additive manufacturing and have been applied in the areas of drug discovery,tissue engineering,and organs on chips.Thus,a comprehensive review of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing is useful for scientists with various backgrounds.Herein,we review recent progress in the development of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing.We evaluate the distinctive benefits associated with microfluidic technologies for medical additive manufacturing with respect to the fabrication of droplet/fiber templates with different structures.Extensive applications of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing are emphasized,such as cell guidance,three-dimensional(3D)cell culture,tissue assembly,and cell-based therapy.Finally,we present challenges in and future perspectives on the development of microfluidics for medical additive manufacturing.展开更多
The concept of“carbon neutrality”poses a huge challenge for chemical engineering and brings great opportunities for boosting the development of novel technologies to realize carbon offsetting and reduce carbon emiss...The concept of“carbon neutrality”poses a huge challenge for chemical engineering and brings great opportunities for boosting the development of novel technologies to realize carbon offsetting and reduce carbon emissions.Developing high-efficient,low-cost,energy-efficient and eco-friendly microfluidicbased microchemical engineering is of great significance.Such kind of“green microfluidics”can reduce carbon emissions from the source of raw materials and facilitate controllable and intensified microchemical engineering processes,which represents the new power for the transformation and upgrading of chemical engineering industry.Here,a brief review of green microfluidics for achieving carbon neutral microchemical engineering is presented,with specific discussions about the characteristics and feasibility of applying green microfluidics in realizing carbon neutrality.Development of green microfluidic systems are categorized and reviewed,including the construction of microfluidic devices by bio-based substrate materials and by low carbon fabrication methods,and the use of more biocompatible and nondestructive fluidic systems such as aqueous two-phase systems(ATPSs).Moreover,low carbon applications benefit from green microfluidics are summarized,ranging from separation and purification of biomolecules,high-throughput screening of chemicals and drugs,rapid and cost-effective detections,to synthesis of fine chemicals and novel materials.Finally,challenges and perspectives for further advancing green microfluidics in microchemical engineering for carbon neutrality are proposed and discussed.展开更多
Advances in microbiology rely on innovations in technology. Droplet microfluidics, as a versatile and powerful technique that allows high-throughput generation and manipulation of subnanoliter volume droplets, has bec...Advances in microbiology rely on innovations in technology. Droplet microfluidics, as a versatile and powerful technique that allows high-throughput generation and manipulation of subnanoliter volume droplets, has become an indispensable tool shifting experimental paradigms in microbiology. Droplet microfluidics has opened new avenues to various microbiological research, from resolving single-cell heterogeneity to investigating spatiotemporal dynamics of microbial communities, from precise quantitation of microbiota to systematic decipherment of microbial interactions, and from isolating rare and uncultured microbes to improving genetic engineered strains. In this review, we present recent advances of droplet microfluidics in various fields of microbiology: i) microbial cultivation, ii) microorganism detection and characterization, iii) antibiotic susceptibility testing, iv) microbial interactions, v) microbial biotechnology.We also provide our perspectives on the challenges and future directions for droplet microfluidic-based microbiology research.展开更多
Traditional diagnostic strategies for infectious disease detection require benchtop instruments that are inappropriate for point-of-care testing(POCT). Emerging microfluidics, a highly miniaturized, automatic, and int...Traditional diagnostic strategies for infectious disease detection require benchtop instruments that are inappropriate for point-of-care testing(POCT). Emerging microfluidics, a highly miniaturized, automatic, and integrated technology,are a potential substitute for traditional methods in performing rapid, low-cost, accurate, and on-site diagnoses.Molecular diagnostics are widely used in microfluidic devices as the most effective approaches for pathogen detection.This review summarizes the latest advances in microfluidics-based molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases from academic perspectives and industrial outlooks. First, we introduce the typical on-chip nucleic acid processes,including sample preprocessing, amplification, and signal read-out. Then, four categories of microfluidic platforms are compared with respect to features, merits, and demerits. We further discuss application of the digital assay in absolute nucleic acid quantification. Both the classic and recent microfluidics-based commercial molecular diagnostic devices are summarized as proof of the current market status. Finally, we propose future directions for microfluidics-based infectious disease diagnosis.展开更多
As a marine bacterial pathogen, Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae(PDD) is distributed in seawater worldwide. It can infect different animals as well as humans, even cause deaths. The highly conserved regions of ...As a marine bacterial pathogen, Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae(PDD) is distributed in seawater worldwide. It can infect different animals as well as humans, even cause deaths. The highly conserved regions of PDD mcp gene on chromosome and dly gene on plasmid were selected as the target fragments to design the specific primers. Recombinant plasmid standard was prepared based on the primers. With GENECHECKER UF-150 qRT-PCR instrument as the platform, a fluorescence-based quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR) method was established for the detection of PDD. This method can specifically detect PDD and distinguish the highly virulent strains. Additionally, the test results can be qualitatively judged by visualization, while the quantitative detection can be achieved through the standard curve calculation. The minimum limit of detection was 1.0×101 copies μL-1, and the detection time was less than 20 min. In summary, this new method has outstanding advantages, such as strong specificity, high sensitivity, and low site requirements. It is a rapid on-site detection technology for highly virulent PDD strains.展开更多
Tumor heterogeneity plays a critical role in the determination of appropriate anticancer therapy.As cir-culating tumor cells(CTCs)contain all tumor-related information,the genetic changes on CTCs could help us choose ...Tumor heterogeneity plays a critical role in the determination of appropriate anticancer therapy.As cir-culating tumor cells(CTCs)contain all tumor-related information,the genetic changes on CTCs could help us choose the appropriate treatments for different patients.Single-base mutations are very common in tumor genetic changes which may result in drug resistance.Here,we introduce a single-cell mutation de-tection platform based on droplet microfluidics.This platform integrates cell capsulation,cell lysis,poly-merase chain reaction(PCR)and the observation process.The droplets’generation speed is over 6000 per minute and more than 600 cells could be encapsulated in one second.To verify the performance of our platform in practical use,we performed the mutation analysis of 4 kinds of cells with our platform and noted that the genetic status of each single cell was clearly discriminated.Moreover,these results agreed with those from direct sequencing.Compared with other forms of single-cell mutation detection techniques,our platform has high throughput,short experimental time and less experimental operations.展开更多
This article is a concise overview about the developing microfluidic systems named surface-tension-confined droplet microfluidics （STORMs）. Different from traditional complexed droplet microfluidics which generated ...This article is a concise overview about the developing microfluidic systems named surface-tension-confined droplet microfluidics （STORMs）. Different from traditional complexed droplet microfluidics which generated and confined the droplets by three-dimensional （3D） poly（dimethylsiloxane）-based microchannels, STORM systems provide two- dimensional （2D） platforms for control of droplets. STORM devices utilize surface energy, with methods such as surface chemical modification and mechanical processing, to control the movement of fluid droplets. Various STORM devices have been readily prepared, with distinct advantages over conventional droplet microfluidics, which generated and confined the droplets by 3D poly（dimethylsiloxane）-based microchannels, such as significant reduction of energy consumption neces- sary for device operation, facile or even direct introduction of droplets onto patterned surface without external driving force such as a micropump, thus increased frequency or efficiency of droplets generation of specific STORM device, among others. Thus, STORM devices can be excellent alternatives for majority areas in droplet microfluidics and irreplaceable choices in certain fields by contrast. In this review, fabrication methods or strategies, manipulation methods or mechanisms, and main applications of STORM devices are introduced.展开更多
With the advantages of better mimicking the specificity of natural tissues,three-dimensional(3D)cell culture plays a major role in drug development,toxicity testing,and tissue engineering.However,existing scaffolds or...With the advantages of better mimicking the specificity of natural tissues,three-dimensional(3D)cell culture plays a major role in drug development,toxicity testing,and tissue engineering.However,existing scaffolds or microcarriers for 3D cell culture are often limited in size and show suboptimal performance in simulating the vascular complexes of living organisms.Therefore,we present a novel hierarchically inverse opal porous scaffold made via a simple microfluidic approach for promoting 3D cell co-culture techniques.The designed scaffold is constructed using a combined concept involving an emulsion droplet template and inert polymer polymerization.This work demonstrates that the resultant scaffolds ensure a sufficient supply of nutrients during cell culture,so as to achieve large-volume cell culture.In addition,by serially planting different cells in the scaffold,a 3D co-culture system of endothelial-cellencapsulated hepatocytes can be developed for constructing certain functional tissues.It is also demonstrated that the use of the proposed scaffold for a co-culture system helps hepatocytes to maintain specific in vivo functions.These hierarchically inverse opal scaffolds lay the foundation for 3D cell culture and even the construction of biomimetic tissues.展开更多
基金the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.42102127)the Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China (No.2024 M751860)。
文摘Cleat serves as the primary flow pathway for coalbed methane(CBM)and water.However,few studies consider the impact of local contact on two-phase flow within cleats.A visual generalized model of endogenous cleats was constructed based on microfluidics.A microscopic and mesoscopic observation technique was proposed to simultaneously capture gas-liquid interface morphology of pores and throat and the two-phase flow characteristics in entire cleat system.The local contact characteristics of cleats reduced absolute permeability,which resulted in a sharp increase in the starting pressure.The reduced gas flow capacity narrowed the co-infiltration area and decreased water saturation at the isotonic point in a hydrophilic environment.The increased local contact area of cleats weakened gas phase flow capacity and narrowed the co-infiltration area.Jumping events occurred in methane-water flow due to altered porosity caused by local contact in cleats.The distribution of residual phases changed the jumping direction on the micro-scale as well as the dominant channel on the mesoscale.Besides,jumping events caused additional energy dissipation,which was ignored in traditional two-phase flow models.This might contribute to the overestimation of relative permeability.The work provides new methods and insights for investigating unsaturated flow in complex porous media.
基金financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.KVJBMC23001536)Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Technique and Equipment for Macromolecular Advanced Manufacturing(No.20240518)+2 种基金the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers(Fudan University)(No.K2024-15)the Central Universities support from Beijing Jiaotong University(No.KVYJS24011536)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.62175012).
文摘Due to the rapid development and potential applications of iron(Ⅲ)-alginate(Fe-Alg)microgels in biomedical as well as environmental engineering,this study explores the preparation and characterization of spherical Fe-Alg microgels using droplet microfluidics combined with an external ionic crosslinking method.This study focused on the role of Fe^(3+)and examined its effects on the physical/chemical properties of microgels under different ionic conditions and reduced or oxidized states.The pH-dependent release behavior of Fe^(3+)from these microgels demonstrates their potential biomedical and environmental applications.Furthermore,the microgels can exhibit magnetism simply by utilizing in situ oxidation,which can be further used for targeted drug delivery and magnetic separation technologies.
基金financially supported by Science and Technology on Applied Physical Chemistry Laboratory,China(Grant No.61426022220303)supported by the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52305617)。
文摘Energetic materials,characterized by their capacity to store and release substantial energy,hold pivotal significance in some fields,particularly in defense applications.Microfluidics,with its ability to manipulate fluids and facilitate droplet formation at the microscale,enables precise control of chemical reactions.Recent scholarly endeavors have increasingly harnessed microfluidic reactors in the realm of energetic materials,yielding morphologically controllable particles with enhanced uniformity and explosive efficacy.However,crucial insights into microfluidic-based methodologies are dispersed across various publications,necessitating a systematic compilation.Accordingly,this review addresses this gap by concentrating on the synthesis of energetic materials through microfluidics.Specifically,the methods based on micro-mixing and droplets in the previous papers are summarized and the strategies to control the critical parameters within chemical reactions are discussed in detail.Then,the comparison in terms of advantages and disadvantages is attempted.As demonstrated in the last section regarding perspectives,challenges such as clogging,dead zones,and suboptimal production yields are non-ignoble in the promising fields and they might be addressed by integrating sound,optics,or electrical energy to meet heightened requirements.This comprehensive overview aims to consolidate and analyze the diverse array of microfluidic approaches in energetic material synthesis,offering valuable insights for future research directions.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52006056)the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province(2020B090923003)The project was also partly supported by Natural Research Institute for Family Planning as well。
文摘Microfluidic devices are composed of microchannels with a diameter ranging from ten to a few hundred micrometers.Thus,quite a small(10-9–10-18l)amount of liquid can be manipulated by such a precise system.In the past three decades,significant progress in materials science,microfabrication,and various applications has boosted the development of promising functional microfluidic devices.In this review,the recent progress on novel microfluidic devices with various functions and applications is presented.First,the theory and numerical methods for studying the performance of microfluidic devices are briefly introduced.Then,materials and fabrication methods of functional microfluidic devices are summarized.Next,the recent significant advances in applications of microfluidic devices are highlighted,including heat sinks,clean water production,chemical reactions,sensors,biomedicine,capillaric circuits,wearable electronic devices,and microrobotics.Finally,perspectives on the challenges and future developments of functional microfluidic devices are presented.This review aims to inspire researchers from various fields engineering,materials,chemistry,mathematics,physics,and more—to collaborate and drive forward the development and applications of functional microfluidic devices,specifically for achieving carbon neutrality.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52172283,22108147,22078197)Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(Grant No.2021A1515012506,2023A1515011827)+1 种基金Shenzhen Science and Technology Program(JCYJ20220818095801003,RCYX20221008092902010)Shenzhen Natural Science Fund(the Stable Support Plan Program 20220810120421001).
文摘Multiphase microfluidic has emerged as a powerful platform to produce novel materials with tailor-designed functionalities,as microfluidic fabrication provides precise controls over the size,component,and structure of resultant materials.Recently,functional materials with well-defined micro-/nanostructures fabricated by microfluidics find important applications as environmental and energy materials.This review first illustrated in detail how different structures or shapes of droplet and jet templates are formed by typical configurations of microfluidic channel networks and multiphase flow systems.Subsequently,recent progresses on several representative energy and environmental applications,such as water purification,water collecting and energy storage,were overviewed.Finally,it is envisioned that integrating microfluidics and other novel materials will play increasing important role in contributing environmental remediation and energy storage in near future.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (62103050)National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFA1207100 and 2023YFE0112400)+3 种基金Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2242018)BIT Research and Innovation Promoting Project (2023CX01002)Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering (2023-K02)Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies (Sun Yat-sen University) (OEMT-2022KF-09)。
文摘Microproteomics, the profiling of protein expressions in small cell populations or individual cells, is essential for understanding complex biological systems. However, sample loss and insufficient sensitivity of analytical techniques pose severe challenges to this field. Microfluidics, particularly droplet-based microfluidics, provides an ideal approach by enabling miniaturized and integrated workflows to process samples and offers several advantages, including reduced sample loss, low reagent consumption, faster reaction times, and improved throughput. Droplet-based microfluidics manipulates droplets of fluids to function as discrete reaction units, enabling complex chemical reactions and biological workflows in a miniaturized setting. This article discusses a variety of on-chip functions of droplet-based microfluidics,including cell sorting, cell culture, and sample processing. We then highlight recent advances in the mass spectrometry(MS)-based analysis of single cells using droplet-based microfluidic platforms, including digital microfluidics(DMF). Finally, we review the integrated DMF–MS systems that enable automated and parallel proteomic profiling of single cells with high sensitivity and discuss the applications of the technology and its future perspectives.
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Numbers:U21A20135 and 52205488)‘Shuguang Program’supported by Shanghai Education Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission(Grant Number:20SG12)Shanghai Jiao Tong University(Grant Number:2020QY11).
文摘Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS)microfluidic system,which enables rapid detection of chemical and biological analytes,offers an effective platform to monitor various food contaminants and disease diagnoses.The efficacy of SERS microfluidic systems is greatly dependent on the sensitivity and reusability of SERS detection substrates to ensure repeated use for prolonged periods.This study proposed a novel process of femtosecond laser nanoparticle array(NPA)implantation to achieve homogeneous forward transfer of gold NPA on a flexible polymer film and accurately integrated it within microfluidic chips for SERS detection.The implanted Au-NPA strips show a remarkable electromagnetic field enhancement with the factor of 9×108 during SERS detection of malachite green(MG)solution,achieving a detection limit lower than 10 ppt,far better than most laser-prepared SERS substrates.Furthermore,Au-NPA strips show excellent reusability after several physical and chemical cleaning,because of the robust embedment of laser-implanted NPA in flexible substrates.To demonstrate the performance of Au-NPA,a SERS microfluidic system is built to monitor the online oxidation reaction between MG/NaClO reactants,which helps infer the reaction path.The proposed method of nanoparticle implantation is more effective than the direct laser structuring technique.It provides better performance for SERS detection,robustness of detection,and substrate flexibility and has a wider range of applications for microfluidic systems without any negative impact.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21875109)to provide fund for conducting experiments.
文摘Nano-TATB was developed in microchannels by physical method and chemical method,respectively.The effects of total flow rate,number of microreactor plates,solvent/non-solvent ratio and temperature on the particle size of TATB in the physical method were studied.Prepared TATB were characterized by Nano Sizer,Scanning Electron Microscopy,Specific surface aperture analyzer,X-ray diffraction,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Differential Scanning Calorimetry.The results show that the TATB obtained by physical method and chemical method are spherical,with average particle size of 130.66 nm and 108.51 nm,respectively.Specific surface areas of TATB obtained by physical and chemical methods are 21.37 m^(2)/g and 21.91 m^(2)/g,respectively.Compared with the specific surface area of micro-TATB(0.0808 m^(2)/g),the specific surface area of nano-TATB is significantly increased.DSC test results show that the smaller the particle size of TATB,the lower the thermal decomposition temperature.In addition,by simulating the mixing state of fluid in microchannels and combining with the classical nucleation theory,the mechanism of preparing nano-TATB by microchannels was proposed.
文摘Lightweight and mechanically strong natural silk fibers have been extensively investigated over the past decades.Inspired by this research,many artificial spinning techniques(wet spinning,dry spinning,electrospinning,etc.)have been developed to fabricate robust protein fibers.As the traditional spinning methods provide poor control over the as-spun fibers,microfluidics has been integrated with these techniques to allow the fabrication of biological fibers in a well-designed manner,with simplicity and cost efficiency.The mechanical behavior of the developed fibers can be precisely modulated by controlling the type iop and size of microfluidic channel,flow rate,and shear force.This technique has been successfully used to manufacture a broad range of protein fibers,and can accelerate the production and application of protein fibers in various fields.This review outlines recent progress in the design and fabrication of protein-based fibers based on microfluidics.We first briefly discuss the natural spider silk-spinning process and the microfluidics spinning process.Next,the fabrication and mechanical properties of regenerated protein fibers via microfluidics are discussed,followed by a discussion of recombinant protein fibers.Other sourced protein fibers are also reviewed in detail.Finally,a brief outlook on the development of microfluidic technology for producing protein fibers is presented.
基金supported by National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No.2017FYA0205300 and No.2015 CB931802)National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (No. 81571835)
文摘Circulating tumor cells(CTCs) are the cancer cells that circulate in the peripheral blood after escaping from the original or metastatic tumors. CTCs could be used as non-invasive source of clinical information in early diagnosis of cancer and evaluation of cancer development. In recent years, CTC research has become a hotspot field wherein many novel CTC detection technologies based on microfluidics have been developed. Great advances have been made that exhibit obvious technical advantages, but cannot yet satisfy the current clinical requirements. In this study, we review the main advances in isolation and detection methods of CTC based on microfluidics research over several years, propose five technical indicators for evaluating these methods, and explore the application prospects. We also discuss the concepts, issues, approaches, advantages, limitations, and challenges with an aim of stimulating a broader interest in developing microfluidics-based CTC detection technology.
基金financially supported by a foundation item from the China People’s Liberation Army General Armaments Department。
文摘HNS-IV(Hexanitrostilbene-IV) is the main charge of the exploding foil initiators(EFI), and the microstructure of the HNS will directly affect its density, flowability, sensitivity, and stability. HNS microspheres were prepared using droplet microfluidics, and the particle size, morphology, specific surface area, thermal performance, and ignition threshold of the HNS microspheres were characterized and tested. The results shown that the prepared HNS microspheres have high sphericity, with an average particle size of 20.52 μm(coefficient of variation less than 0.2), and a specific surface area of 21.62 m^(2)/g(6.87 m^(2)/g higher than the raw material). Without changing the crystal structure and thermal stability of HNS-IV, this method significantly enhances the sensitivity of HNS-IV to short pulses and reduces the ignition threshold of the slapper detonator to below 1000 V. This will contribute to the miniaturization and low cost of EFI.
基金Ministry of Science and Technology of China(No.2010CB933901)Science and Technology Innovation fund of SJTU-University of Michigan
文摘Microfluidics has been considered as a potential technology to miniaturize the conventional equipments and technologies. It offers advantages in terms of small volume, low cost, short reaction time and highthroughput. The applications in biology and medicine research and related areas are almost the most extensive and profound. With the appropriate scale that matches the scales of cells, microfluidics is well positioned to contribute significantly to cell biology. Cell culture, fusion and apoptosis were successfully performed in microfluidics. Microfluidics provides unique opportunities for rare circulating tumor cells isolation and detection from the blood of patients, which furthers the discovery of cancer stem cell biomarkers and expands the understanding of the biology of metastasis. Nucleic acid amplification in microfluidics has extended to single-molecule, high-throughput and integration treatment in one chip. DNA computer which is based on the computational model of DNA biochemical reaction will come into practice from concept in the future. In addition, microfluidics offers a versatile platform for protein-protein interactions, protein crystallization and high-throughput screening. Although microfluidics is still in its infancy, its great potential has already been demonstrated and will provide novel solutions to the high-throughput applications.
基金This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2020YFA0908200)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(22002061,52073060,and 61927805)+1 种基金the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu(BE2018707)the Jiangsu Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Fund(CX(20)3051).
文摘Additive manufacturing plays a vital role in the food,mechanical,pharmaceutical,and medical fields.Within these fields,medical additive manufacturing has led to especially obvious improvements in medical instruments,prostheses,implants,and so forth,based on the advantages of cost-effectiveness,customizability,and quick manufacturing.With the features of precise structural control,high throughput,and good component manipulation,microfluidic techniques present distinctive benefits in medical additive manufacturing and have been applied in the areas of drug discovery,tissue engineering,and organs on chips.Thus,a comprehensive review of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing is useful for scientists with various backgrounds.Herein,we review recent progress in the development of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing.We evaluate the distinctive benefits associated with microfluidic technologies for medical additive manufacturing with respect to the fabrication of droplet/fiber templates with different structures.Extensive applications of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing are emphasized,such as cell guidance,three-dimensional(3D)cell culture,tissue assembly,and cell-based therapy.Finally,we present challenges in and future perspectives on the development of microfluidics for medical additive manufacturing.
基金the supports of the National Science Foundation of China (22008130, 22025801)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M682124)+1 种基金the Qingdao Postdoctoral Researchers Applied Research Project Foundation (RZ2000001426)the Scientific Research Foundation for Youth Scholars from Qingdao University (DC1900014265) for this work
文摘The concept of“carbon neutrality”poses a huge challenge for chemical engineering and brings great opportunities for boosting the development of novel technologies to realize carbon offsetting and reduce carbon emissions.Developing high-efficient,low-cost,energy-efficient and eco-friendly microfluidicbased microchemical engineering is of great significance.Such kind of“green microfluidics”can reduce carbon emissions from the source of raw materials and facilitate controllable and intensified microchemical engineering processes,which represents the new power for the transformation and upgrading of chemical engineering industry.Here,a brief review of green microfluidics for achieving carbon neutral microchemical engineering is presented,with specific discussions about the characteristics and feasibility of applying green microfluidics in realizing carbon neutrality.Development of green microfluidic systems are categorized and reviewed,including the construction of microfluidic devices by bio-based substrate materials and by low carbon fabrication methods,and the use of more biocompatible and nondestructive fluidic systems such as aqueous two-phase systems(ATPSs).Moreover,low carbon applications benefit from green microfluidics are summarized,ranging from separation and purification of biomolecules,high-throughput screening of chemicals and drugs,rapid and cost-effective detections,to synthesis of fine chemicals and novel materials.Finally,challenges and perspectives for further advancing green microfluidics in microchemical engineering for carbon neutrality are proposed and discussed.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 82173774, 31925037, 22104041)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos 2662021DKQD001, 2662021JC001)the Cheeloo Scholar Program of Shandong University (to W. Liu)。
文摘Advances in microbiology rely on innovations in technology. Droplet microfluidics, as a versatile and powerful technique that allows high-throughput generation and manipulation of subnanoliter volume droplets, has become an indispensable tool shifting experimental paradigms in microbiology. Droplet microfluidics has opened new avenues to various microbiological research, from resolving single-cell heterogeneity to investigating spatiotemporal dynamics of microbial communities, from precise quantitation of microbiota to systematic decipherment of microbial interactions, and from isolating rare and uncultured microbes to improving genetic engineered strains. In this review, we present recent advances of droplet microfluidics in various fields of microbiology: i) microbial cultivation, ii) microorganism detection and characterization, iii) antibiotic susceptibility testing, iv) microbial interactions, v) microbial biotechnology.We also provide our perspectives on the challenges and future directions for droplet microfluidic-based microbiology research.
基金supported by the Nationa l Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFA1101500)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22074047)+1 种基金the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2020CFB578)the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities,HUST (2020kfy XJJS034)。
文摘Traditional diagnostic strategies for infectious disease detection require benchtop instruments that are inappropriate for point-of-care testing(POCT). Emerging microfluidics, a highly miniaturized, automatic, and integrated technology,are a potential substitute for traditional methods in performing rapid, low-cost, accurate, and on-site diagnoses.Molecular diagnostics are widely used in microfluidic devices as the most effective approaches for pathogen detection.This review summarizes the latest advances in microfluidics-based molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases from academic perspectives and industrial outlooks. First, we introduce the typical on-chip nucleic acid processes,including sample preprocessing, amplification, and signal read-out. Then, four categories of microfluidic platforms are compared with respect to features, merits, and demerits. We further discuss application of the digital assay in absolute nucleic acid quantification. Both the classic and recent microfluidics-based commercial molecular diagnostic devices are summarized as proof of the current market status. Finally, we propose future directions for microfluidics-based infectious disease diagnosis.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFD0900104)the Key Projects of Science and Technology In-novation of Shandong Province (No. 2018YFJH0703)。
文摘As a marine bacterial pathogen, Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae(PDD) is distributed in seawater worldwide. It can infect different animals as well as humans, even cause deaths. The highly conserved regions of PDD mcp gene on chromosome and dly gene on plasmid were selected as the target fragments to design the specific primers. Recombinant plasmid standard was prepared based on the primers. With GENECHECKER UF-150 qRT-PCR instrument as the platform, a fluorescence-based quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR) method was established for the detection of PDD. This method can specifically detect PDD and distinguish the highly virulent strains. Additionally, the test results can be qualitatively judged by visualization, while the quantitative detection can be achieved through the standard curve calculation. The minimum limit of detection was 1.0×101 copies μL-1, and the detection time was less than 20 min. In summary, this new method has outstanding advantages, such as strong specificity, high sensitivity, and low site requirements. It is a rapid on-site detection technology for highly virulent PDD strains.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2017YFA0205300)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61971410,61701171,61801464,61801465 and 62001458)+1 种基金Shanghai Sailing Program(No.20YF1457100),Shanghai Engineer&Technology Research Center of Internet of Things for Respiratory Medicine(No.20DZ2254400)the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Munic-ipality(No.19511104200).
文摘Tumor heterogeneity plays a critical role in the determination of appropriate anticancer therapy.As cir-culating tumor cells(CTCs)contain all tumor-related information,the genetic changes on CTCs could help us choose the appropriate treatments for different patients.Single-base mutations are very common in tumor genetic changes which may result in drug resistance.Here,we introduce a single-cell mutation de-tection platform based on droplet microfluidics.This platform integrates cell capsulation,cell lysis,poly-merase chain reaction(PCR)and the observation process.The droplets’generation speed is over 6000 per minute and more than 600 cells could be encapsulated in one second.To verify the performance of our platform in practical use,we performed the mutation analysis of 4 kinds of cells with our platform and noted that the genetic status of each single cell was clearly discriminated.Moreover,these results agreed with those from direct sequencing.Compared with other forms of single-cell mutation detection techniques,our platform has high throughput,short experimental time and less experimental operations.
基金Project supported by the Shanghai Pujiang Program(Grant No.16PJ1403200)the Research Grant(Grant No.16DZ2260601)from Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
文摘This article is a concise overview about the developing microfluidic systems named surface-tension-confined droplet microfluidics （STORMs）. Different from traditional complexed droplet microfluidics which generated and confined the droplets by three-dimensional （3D） poly（dimethylsiloxane）-based microchannels, STORM systems provide two- dimensional （2D） platforms for control of droplets. STORM devices utilize surface energy, with methods such as surface chemical modification and mechanical processing, to control the movement of fluid droplets. Various STORM devices have been readily prepared, with distinct advantages over conventional droplet microfluidics, which generated and confined the droplets by 3D poly（dimethylsiloxane）-based microchannels, such as significant reduction of energy consumption neces- sary for device operation, facile or even direct introduction of droplets onto patterned surface without external driving force such as a micropump, thus increased frequency or efficiency of droplets generation of specific STORM device, among others. Thus, STORM devices can be excellent alternatives for majority areas in droplet microfluidics and irreplaceable choices in certain fields by contrast. In this review, fabrication methods or strategies, manipulation methods or mechanisms, and main applications of STORM devices are introduced.
基金the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2020YFA0908200)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52073060,32101159,and 61927805)+1 种基金the Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program(JCYJ20190813152616459)the Wenzhou Institute,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences(WIUCAS)’startup fund(WIUCASQD2019007).
文摘With the advantages of better mimicking the specificity of natural tissues,three-dimensional(3D)cell culture plays a major role in drug development,toxicity testing,and tissue engineering.However,existing scaffolds or microcarriers for 3D cell culture are often limited in size and show suboptimal performance in simulating the vascular complexes of living organisms.Therefore,we present a novel hierarchically inverse opal porous scaffold made via a simple microfluidic approach for promoting 3D cell co-culture techniques.The designed scaffold is constructed using a combined concept involving an emulsion droplet template and inert polymer polymerization.This work demonstrates that the resultant scaffolds ensure a sufficient supply of nutrients during cell culture,so as to achieve large-volume cell culture.In addition,by serially planting different cells in the scaffold,a 3D co-culture system of endothelial-cellencapsulated hepatocytes can be developed for constructing certain functional tissues.It is also demonstrated that the use of the proposed scaffold for a co-culture system helps hepatocytes to maintain specific in vivo functions.These hierarchically inverse opal scaffolds lay the foundation for 3D cell culture and even the construction of biomimetic tissues.
