Abstract Droplet microfluidics offers exquisite control over the flows of multiple fluids in micro-scale, enabling fabrication of advanced microspheres with precisely tuneable structures. The main goal of this work was… Click to show full abstract
Abstract Droplet microfluidics offers exquisite control over the flows of multiple fluids in micro-scale, enabling fabrication of advanced microspheres with precisely tuneable structures. The main goal of this work was to design monodispersed carboxylated polystyrene microspheres with a developed pore structure (a specific surface area more than 200 m2/g) using microfluidic technology. We investigated the influence of the composition of monomer phase for the stable formation of droplets. Under the stable region, the resulting microspheres (with diameter 50 µm) showed narrow size distribution having a coefficient of variation of below 2%. The obtained microspheres are characterised by morphology and surface structure by means of electron microscopy. The structure of cross-linked microspheres is investigated by solid-state 1H NMR spectroscopy. Finally, these microspheres have great potential for the effective sorption of biologically active substances (bovine serum albumin).
               
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