Glass-Capillary-Embedded 3D Coaxial Microfluidic Device with Pneumatic Microvalve Control For Producing Patterned Functional Materials

This paper describes a glass-embedded poly-dimethyl-siloxane microfluidic device with integrated microvalves to create a patterned 3D coaxial flow for producing functional composite materials. The microfluidic device was fabricated by transferring two layers of PDMS onto acrylic molds and bonding them across a glass capillary. We confirmed that the microfluidic device could flow coaxial flow and switch the solution. We demonstrated that core-shell microfibers with shells patterned in two different directions by flowing three different sodium alginate solutions into the microfluidic device. Our proposed microfluidic device would be used to fabricate multifunctional hydrogel microfibers made of multiple materials, which can be applied to bio-fabrication and soft-actuator.