3D-Printed Hydrogel Capsule for Transporting Particles in Flow Channel

Tuesday, 15 October 2019: 14:00
Room 301 (The Hilton Atlanta)
K. Nezu (Yamagata university), M. Makino, K. Takamatsu, M. Kawakami, and H. Furukawa (Yamagata University)
Droplet based microfluidics is used for cell culturing, protein crystallization, drug delivery and mixture chemical reagent. It enables quick and accurate analysis with a small amount of reagent. Usually, droplets containing particles are made by T-junction using organic phase and water phase. Sometimes researchers want to replace medium, recovery and reseal particles in droplets. However it is difficult due to surface tension and difficulty to process hydrogel. It has been a problem for many years. In addition, there is a need for a capsule having a function of carrying and releasing drugs and cells to an arbitrary position. We propose 3D-printed hydrogel capsule to solve these problems. We made 3D-printed hydrogel capsule with particles entrance. The entrance is closed by bubble. N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA) gel was selected. It was prepared for 3D-printing. NIPA gel is famous for phase transition. It swells below 32.6℃ and shrinks above that. With this principle, we can transport particle to remove rid bubble at any place. The 3D-printer we used was ACCULAS BA-30H (DMEC). Evaluate systems were made up of microscopic, syringe pump and flow channel. Flow channel was made of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using 3D-printed mold.