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Oil–water biphasic parallel flow for the precise patterning of metals and cells

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Abstract

Fluidic patterning is a convenient and versatile tool for the patterning of materials, cells and microstructures on surface and in microchannels. However, its performance is usually limited by transverse diffusion between fluid streams. It would blur the boundary and deteriorate the precision of patterns. In this paper, we adopted geometric confinement to generate biphasic parallel flow that is constituted of oil and water. Since there is minimum transverse diffusion in biphasic parallel flow, the performance of fluid patterning is expected to be improved. The results show that the metal (Silver and Chromium) patterns have distinct boundary and well-controlled geometry in comparison with that by conventional laminar flow patterning. Furthermore, the high biocompatibility of oil phase (perfluorodecalin, PFD) enables the precise patterning of viable bacteria inside microchannels. Our work demonstrated a new route of using biphasic parallel flow to patterning, which would serve wide applications in prototyping and research settings.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2013ZX09507005), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21305162, 21235004 and 21175080), the Importation and Development of High-Caliber Talents Project of Beijing Municipal Institutions (to Q. L.). The authors thank Prof. Xingyu Jiang in National Center of Nanoscience and Technology for providing fluorescence microscope, and Prof. Bo Zheng at Chinese University of HongKong, Prof. Bo Yao at Zhejiang University and Prof. Ho Cheung Shum at The University of HongKong for fruitful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Basic Medical Sciences Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine Peking Union Medical College, 100005, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Xuan Mu, Jun Zhou & Zhi Zheng

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory for Microanalytical Methods and Instrumentation, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Xuan Mu, Qionglin Liang, Kangning Ren, Yiming Wang & Guoan Luo

  3. College of Chemical and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 200237, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Ping Hu

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  1. Xuan Mu
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Correspondence to Qionglin Liang, Zhi Zheng or Guoan Luo.

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Mu, X., Liang, Q., Zhou, J. et al. Oil–water biphasic parallel flow for the precise patterning of metals and cells. Biomed Microdevices 16, 245–253 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-013-9828-y

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