Cross-scale manipulations of heterogeneous components with arbitrary shapes

Heterogeneous microcomponents were constructed on an electromicrofluidic (EMF) platform with photocrosslinkable prepolymer droplets containing fluorescent particles. The EMF platform demonstrated the features and advantages of (1) manipulating prepolymer droplets and particles, (2) photocrosslinking the prepolymer solutions with arbitrary light patterns generated by a DMD (digital micromirror device), and (3) assembling the crosslinked microcomponents. Various forces were investigated on the EMF device to drive objects on varied scales (μm particles, mm droplets and crosslinked microcomponents), in different phases (solid particle and microcomponents and liquid prepolymer droplets), and of different materials. The technique and procedure demonstrate an approach to form 3D constructs.