A fluidic device for the controlled formation and real-time monitoring of soft membranes self-assembled at liquid interfaces

Abstract

Membrane materials formed at the interface between two liquids have found applications in a large variety of technologies, from sensors to drug-delivery and catalysis. However, studying the formation of these membranes in real-time presents considerable challenges, owing to the difficulty of prescribing the location and instant of formation of the membrane, the difficulty of observing time-dependent membrane shape and thickness, and the poor reproducibility of results obtained using conventional mixing procedures. Here we report a fluidic device that facilitates characterisation of the time-dependent thickness, morphology and mass transport properties of materials self-assembled at fluid-fluid interfaces. In the proposed device the membrane forms from the controlled coalescence of two liquid menisci in a linear open channel. The linear geometry and controlled mixing of the solutions facilitate real-time visualisation, manipulation and improve reproducibility. Because of its small dimensions, the device can be used in conjunction with standard microscopy methods and reduces the required volumes of potentially expensive reagents. As an example application to tissue engineering, we use the device to characterise interfacial membranes formed by supra-molecular self-assembly of peptide-amphiphiles with either an elastin-like-protein or hyaluronic acid. The device can be adapted to study self-assembling membranes for applications that extend beyond bioengineering.

Growth Mechanism of Polymer Membranes Obtained by H-Bonding Across Immiscible Liquid Interfaces

“…For all the experimental conditions, the membrane thickness is found to scale with time as  , over up to four decades in time, which suggests the existence of an underlying diffusive process characterized by a diffusion coefficient that remains constant over the course of each experiment. These results differ from those presented in the works of Gazizov 23 and Mendoza-Meinhardt 25 , where the thickness growth was observed to reach a plateau after a few minutes or hours respectively. The effective diffusion coefficients obtained from the experimental curves using a fit of the form , range between 10 -19 m 2 /s and 10 -17 m 2 /s depending on the experimental conditions (Table 1, third column).…”

Potential sealing and repair of human FM defects after trauma with peptide amphiphiles and Cx43 antisense

“…A well‐established polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) capillary device was used to investigate the interactions of the PAK3 solution and the AF sample during early plug development, as described 29 . Human AF sample (90 μL) was injected into one end of the PDMS device and the PAK3 solution (10 μL, 2%) was added to the opposite end.…”

“…A well-established polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) capillary device was used to investigate the interactions of the PAK3 solution and the AF sample during early plug development, as described. 29 Human AF sample (90 μL) was injected into one end of the PDMS device and the PAK3 solution (10 μL, 2%) was added to the opposite end. The structural plug formation and interactions at the interface of the PAK3 solution and the AF specimen were examined by light and confocal microscopy and imaging with time-lapse of the fluorescently labeled PAK3-TAMRA on an epifluorescence microscope (Leica, DMI 4000B).…”

Controlled Production of Elastin-like Recombinamer Polymer-Based Membranes at a Liquid–Liquid Interface by Click Chemistry

“…In order to control the membrane thickness, pore size distribution, and so, diffusion properties, a two-phase system was selected for the fabrication of the ELR-based entity. As described, liquid interfaces have shown the ability to physically self-assemble ELRs into thin structures once in combination with polysaccharides 13 , amphiphilic peptides 14,15 and, recently, graphene oxide 16 . However, no technology has been explored for manufacturing, at a liquid-liquid interface, adjustable in thickness, porosity and diffusion micrometer and easy to manipulate membranes from ELRs alone.…”