Self-assembly of fluorinated gradient copolymer in three-dimensional co-flow focusing microfluidic

Chengzhi Zhu; Rongyi Yao; Yanjun Chen; Mengran Feng; Shuai Ma; Chaocan Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.076

Self-assembly of fluorinated gradient copolymer in three-dimensional co-flow focusing microfluidic

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Sep 15:526:75-82. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.076. Epub 2018 Apr 18.

Authors

Chengzhi Zhu¹, Rongyi Yao¹, Yanjun Chen², Mengran Feng¹, Shuai Ma¹, Chaocan Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Material Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
² School of Material Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China. Electronic address: yanjunchen@whut.edu.cn.

PMID: 29723794
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.076

Abstract

Hypothesis: The microfluidic technology can drive molecules to organize into aggregates with nano-structures, and gives a possibility to control aggregate morphologies by adjusting hydrodynamic parameters of microfluidics. COMSOL Multiphysics is a useful software to simulate the mixing situation of solutions in microfluidic. Here, experiments and simulation are combined to study the self-assembly of gradient copolymers in the microfluidic device.

Experiments: Fluorinated gradient copolymers self-assembled in a three-dimensional co-flow focusing microfluidic device (3D CFMD). Hydrodynamic parameters of 3D CFMD were adjusted to control morphologies and the sizes of copolymer aggregates. A simulation software, COMSOL Multiphysics, was used to simulate the mixing and diffusion of outer phase stream and inner phase stream to explore the mixing kinetics of two streams in the microchannels.

Findings: 3D CFMD offered a novel platform for the continuous and controllable self-assembly of fluorinated gradient copolymer. Various morphologies of copolymer aggregates were obtained in 3D CFMD, but just spherical micelles were formed by a traditional solvent-inducing method. The flow velocity, initial water content of outer-phase stream, and the copolymer concentration of inner-phase stream had great effects on the morphology and size of copolymer aggregates. The simulation results made us a better understanding on the microfluidic self-assembly.

Keywords: Co-flow microfluidic; Gradient copolymer; Self-assembly; Simulation.