All-Aqueous Hierachical Hydrogels for Microfluidics

Hydrogels have demonstrated promising applications across fields, ranging from delivery of actives, to cell cultures, and to wound protection. Hydrogel designs have focused on the constituent molecules and molecular interactions via modifications of the molecular identities and structures. Hierarchical structures within the hydrogels can also be manipulated by structuring the precursor solution before hydrogel formation. The precursor solution can be directed via the use of microfluidic techniques, achieving underlying hydrogel architectures with different properties. Besides its use for designing and modifying hydrogels, microfluidic devices can also be made formed by hydrogels, rather than traditional elastomer-based materials. In this talk, I will share our works at the interface between hydrogels and microfluidics, and will discuss the potential functions and properties of the resultant hydrogels and microfluidic devices.