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Updated: Jun 30, 2026
Magnetic and Thermal-sensitive Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based Microgels for Magnetically Triggered Controlled Release
Published on: July 4, 2017
Microfluidic-based synthesis of non-spherical magnetic hydrogel microparticles
Dae Kun Hwang1, Dhananjay Dendukuri, Patrick S Doyle
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Abstract:
Spherical and non-spherical magnetic hydrogel particles were synthesized in a microfluidic device containing an embedded UV light reflector. Monodisperse magnetic emulsion droplets were generated in a T-junction and allowed to relax into spheres, disks, and plugs in confining microchannel geometries. Particle morphology was locked-in via UV-initiated photopolymerization. The role of the reflector in the microchannel is to provide a uniform distribution of UV energy to the magnetic emulsion droplets and to increase the UV flux, which significantly improves UV polymerization conditions for microfluidic-based particle synthesis. Magnetic nanoparticles were uniformly encapsulated in the hydrogel, giving the microparticles superparamagnetic behavior. Additionally, the non-spherical particles show anisotropic responses under an applied external magnetic field.
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