Smart Fluorosurfactant-Assisted Microfluidics Powered On-Demand Generation and Retrieval of Cell-Laden Microgels

Abstract

Microfluidics are powerful tools for fabricating monodisperse cell-laden hydrogel microdroplets, but retrieving microgels from water-in-oil emulsions often requires chemical demulsifiers that harm cells. This work reports thermo-responsive smart surfactants synthesized by coupling perfluoropolyethers with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) blocks. The surfactants stabilize droplets at low temperature and destabilize them at elevated temperature, enabling non-invasive, biocompatible microgel recovery for tissue engineering, drug delivery, and single-cell analysis.