Hydrogel-Immobilized Coacervate Droplets as Modular Microreactor Assemblies |
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| Authors: | Dr. Jianbo Liu Dr. Liangfei Tian Dr. Yan Qiao Shaohong Zhou Dr. Avinash J. Patil Prof. Dr. Kemin Wang Dr. Mei Li Prof. Dr. Stephen Mann |
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| Affiliation: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082 P. R. China;2. Centre for Protolife Research and Centre for Organized Matter Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS UK |
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| Abstract: | Immobilization of compartmentalized microscale objects in 3D hydrogels provides a step towards the modular assembly of soft functional materials with tunable architectures and distributed functionalities. Herein, we report the use of a combination of micro-compartmentalization, immobilization, and modularization to fabricate and assemble hydrogel-based microreactor assemblies comprising millions of functionalized polysaccharide–polynucleotide coacervate droplets. The heterogeneous hydrogels can be structurally fused by interfacial crosslinking and coupled as input and output modules to implement a UV-induced photocatalytic/peroxidation nanoparticle/DNAzyme reaction cascade that generates a spatiotemporal fluorescence read-out depending on the droplet number density, intensity of photoenergization, and chemical flux. Our approach offers a route to heterogeneous hydrogels with endogenous reactivity and reconfigurable architecture, and provides a step towards the development of soft modular materials with programmable functionality. |
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| Keywords: | Kaskadenreaktionen Koazervate Hydrogele Mikroreaktor Weiche Materie |
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