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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 3, 2025

An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components

An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components

Published on: July 18, 2018

Hydrogels: The Next Generation Body Materials for Microfluidic Chips?

Jing Nie^1,2, Jianzhong Fu^1,2, Yong He^1,2,3

¹State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China.

Small (Weinheim an Der Bergstrasse, Germany)

|October 26, 2020

Summary

Hydrogels offer superior biocompatibility for microfluidic chip construction, overcoming limitations of traditional materials. This review explores fabricating and applying hydrogel-based microfluidic chips (HMCs) in biomedical research.

Keywords:

biofluidics hydrogels microfluidic chips

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Last Updated: Dec 3, 2025

An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components

An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components

Published on: July 18, 2018

Microfluidic Chips Controlled with Elastomeric Microvalve Arrays

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Generation of a Simplified Three-Dimensional Skin-on-a-chip Model in a Micromachined Microfluidic Platform

Published on: May 17, 2021

Area of Science:

Biomaterials Science
Microfluidics
Biomedical Engineering

Background:

Traditional microfluidic chip materials face limitations in biocompatibility and degradability for biomedical applications.
Hydrogels, with their high water content, offer excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, making them promising alternatives.

Purpose of the Study:

To systematically establish the concept of hydrogel-based microfluidic chips (HMCs).
To address key concerns: material selection, fabrication methods, and application fields for HMCs.
To propose HMCs as a viable substitute for conventional microfluidic chip materials.

Main Methods:

Review of existing literature on hydrogel properties and microfluidic fabrication techniques.
Proposal of a modified fabrication flowchart: high-resolution template printing, damage-free demolding, and twice-crosslinking bonding.
Discussion of material modifications to overcome incompatibility between hydrogels and construction methods.

Main Results:

Hydrogels present a viable alternative material for microfluidic chip construction, particularly for biofluidics.
An efficient fabrication flowchart is proposed for "soft and wet" hydrogels.
Potential biomedical applications and challenges of HMCs are discussed.

Conclusions:

Hydrogel-based microfluidic chips (HMCs) represent a promising advancement in microfluidics for biomedical research.
Further research and development are needed to overcome material replacement challenges and fully realize the potential of HMCs.
HMCs offer a broader concept for microfluidic chip design in terms of form and function.