在數位微流體平台上生成複數聚(乙二醇)二丙烯酸酯液滴並進行降解測試

Abstract

水凝膠的生物相容性與多孔性使其在生物醫學與藥物傳遞應用中扮演關鍵角色。本研究提出了數位微流控（DMF）的最新進展，利用液體介電泳（LDEP）增強水凝膠的操作能力，實現液體的拉伸操作，並比較了不同液體在拉伸距離和最小驅動電壓上的實驗結果與理論值。此外，研究還測試了相同液體在不同電極寬度下的位移，以及在相同LDEP力下，不同濃度PEGDA（10%、30%、50%，分別代表三種不同黏度）的拉伸距離，進行理論與實驗結果的比較。 本研究所設計的DMF裝置能夠高效且穩定地生成並控制多個水凝膠液滴，同時對五種不同液體進行測試，並達到低CV值：10wt% PEGDA為5.0%，50wt% PEGDA為6.0%，Na₂HPO₄為5.1%，NaH₂PO₄更低，僅4.0%，而H₂O₂則為5.9%。此技術克服了傳統方法的限制，顯著提高了液滴體積與穩定性的控制能力，促進了平行測試，拓展了水凝膠的應用範圍。 由於市場上水凝膠種類的日益增加以及測試方法的需求持續存在，本研究利用液滴生成技術提供了一個多次重複測試的水凝膠平台。該技術減少了溶液消耗，簡化了操作過程並節省了時間。經過大量實驗測試發現，奈升（nL）尺度的液滴行為與毫升（mL）尺度液滴趨勢相同，但反應更快。在10nL尺度中，10wt% PEGDA剩餘32%，50wt% PEGDA剩餘54.5%；相比之下，在10μL尺度中，10wt% PEGDA剩餘41.3%，50wt% PEGDA剩餘71.8%。這表明奈升尺度平台具有更高的反應速率，顯示其在進一步應用中的潛力。

Hydrogel's biocompatibility and porosity make it crucial for biomedical and drug delivery applications. This paper presents advancements in Digital Microfluidics (DMF) that enhance hydrogel manipulation using liquid dielectrophoresis (LDEP) to elongate the liquid. It compares the theoretical and experimental results regarding elongation distance and the minimum applied voltage for different liquids. Additionally, the study examines the displacement of the same liquid under varying electrode widths and evaluates the elongation distances of PEGDA at concentrations of 10%, 30%, and 50%—representing three different viscosities—under the same LDEP force. Our DMF device efficiently generates and controls multiple hydrogel droplets simultaneously using five different liquids while maintaining a low coefficient of variation (CV). The CV values were as follows: 10 wt% PEGDA at 5.0%, 50 wt% PEGDA at 6.0%, Na₂HPO₄ at 5.1%, NaH₂PO₄ at 4.0% (the lowest), and H₂O₂ at 5.9%. By overcoming the limitations of traditional methods, this approach improves droplet volume control and stability, facilitating parallel testing and expanding hydrogel applications. With the increasing variety of hydrogels available on the market and the continuous demand for reliable testing methods, this study leverages droplet generation technology to establish a high-throughput hydrogel testing platform. This approach reduces solution consumption, simplifies the operation process, and minimizes time wastage. Through extensive experimental testing, it was observed that the behavior of nanoliter-sized droplets follows the same trend as milliliter-sized droplets but with a faster response. Both 10 wt% (32% remaining) and 50 wt% (54.5% remaining) demonstrated that the reaction rate at the 10 nL scale was significantly faster than at the 10 μL scale, where 10 wt% (41.3% remaining) and 50 wt% (71.8% remaining) were observed. This finding highlights the potential utility of the platform for further applications.