Princeton University

Harvard College

University of Toronto

Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique

Ethicon, Gmbh

Tsinghua University

Ut-Battelle, Inc.

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

University of Hawai'i

Versitech, Inc.

University of Science and Technology Beijing

Université De Rennes I

The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford

Università Di Napoli “Federico Ii” Dipartimento Di Ingegneria Chimica, Dei Materiali E Della Produzione Industriale

Kumacheva, Eugenia

Howard A Stone

George M Whitesides

Patrick Warren

Sangwoo Shin

Darren Roy Link

David A Weitz

Eugenia Kumacheva

Irina Gitlin

Willow Ruth Diluzio

Shelley L Anna

Janine K Nunes

Piotr Garstecki

Nathalie Bontoux

Daniel T Chiu

Jiang Tao Li

Noo Li Jeon

Janelle R Anderson

Insung S Choi

Steven J Metallo

Christopher J Wargo

Jie Feng

Hongkai Wu

Suin Shim

Jesse Ault

Haosheng Chen

Shailendra Kumar Parihar

Timothy G Dietz

Lei Shi

David A Edwards

Simon Cohn

Robert K Prud'homme

Thomas P Ryan

Kevin Shaun Weadock

Bonnie L Bassler

Patrick J Sinko

Parris S Wellman

Rajesh Pendekanti

Jason Wolf Fleischer

Mara G Prentiss

Yueh-Lin Loo

Robert M Westervelt

Rick A Rogers

Stefano Guido

Daniel Gordon

Peter Douglas

Maksym Mezhericher

Sherif Ibrahim

Knut Drescher

Justin Cooper McDonald

Nathalie M Pinkerton

Nicolas Pegard

J Cooper McDonald

T Anh Le

Raghuveer Basude

Robert S Casar

Anderson Ho Cheung Shum

Yuan Liu

Orest Shardt

Isabelle Cantat

Sepideh Khodaparast

Yingxian Yu

Jongbok Kim

Pilnam Kim

Antonio Perazzo

Matthieu Roche

Efraim Feinstein

Arnaud Saint-Jalmes

Ian Griffiths

Sebastien Le Roux

Zhen Zhen Li

Eujin Um

Tamara Pico

Brendan Clifford

John W Hutchinson

Yi Shen

Jiandi Wan

Dayuan Gao

Pierre Striehl

Shelly L Anna

Patrick B Warren

Sébastien Le Roux

J Cooper Mcdonald

The subject invention pertains to a new method for measuring the elastic properties of microfibers by rope-coiling. Rope-coiling refers to the buckling of a slender elastic fiber caused by axial compression. A continuous flow microfluidic method enables the high-throughput measurement of the elasticity of microfibers by rope-coiling, where sample loading and unloading are not needed between consecutive measurements. In certain embodiments the coiling radius can be directly proportional to the elastic modulus of the fiber, facilitating calibration to measure fiber elasticity for high-throughput applications. Throughput can be thousands of times higher than that of a tensile tester, making possible an in situ, on-line measurement in a microfluidic production line, which couples the making of microfibers and the measurement of elasticity on the same line. The new method can also measure certain fibers with local variations in elasticity.

Apparatus and method for measuring the elasticity of microfibers at high throughput

Disclosed herein is a simple method for generation of high-throughput aerosols of monodisperse micro-shell particles. To create the aerosol, small nozzles are employed blowing slightly compressed air on a thin liquid film. This allows one to generate bubble aerosols including particles having a thin liquid shell surrounding a gas core, which are suspended in a carrier gas flow or environment. The diameter of the created liquid shells is uniform and scales with the inner diameter of the blowing nozzle, enabling control on the size of the produced monodispersed aerosol and formation of particles between few microns to several hundred of microns in outer diameter.

High-throughput monodisperse aerosols of micro-shell particles

Methods of inducing or controlling particle motion in suspensions and colloids are described. In one aspect, a method of inducing particle motion in a suspension comprises contacting the suspension with a gas phase to establish at least one interface between the gas phase and continuous phase of the suspension. One or more gases of the gas phase are transferred across the interface to provide a solute gradient in the continuous phase, the solute gradient inducing motion of the suspended particles.

Gradient induced particle motion in suspensions

Methods described herein, in some embodiments, permit extraction of particle structural and/or surface charge data from gradient induced particle motion in channels. In one aspect, a method of manipulating particle motion comprises introducing a fluid into a channel, the fluid comprising particles, and driving particle accumulation to a preselected location in the channel by setting advective velocity of the fluid to offset diffusiophoretic mobility of the particles at the preselected location.

Methods of particle manipulation and analysis

Disclosed is a process for separating suspended particles based on size. When confined in a tube, a bubble moves relative to the liquid as a small fraction of the liquid leaks backwards through a very thin gap between the bubble and the internal wall of the tube. The lubricating film formed around the bubble can be fine-tuned by simply changing the average flow speed. With this thin film of liquid, the confined air bubble can be used to separate particles in, for example, poly-disperse microspheres suspensions. As the bubble passes through the suspension, only particles smaller than the liquid gap thickness can leak through the gap towards the back of the bubble, resulting a filtered particle suspension containing only small particles at the back of the bubble. Compared to the traditional methods, this particle separation process is easy to perform, and is flexible in filtering different suspensions with one set-up. Due to the flexibility of the bubble interface and the special film thickness profile of a translating confined bubble, this process also avoids clogging, and can be easily adapted to, e.g., separate different poly-disperse suspensions based on size.

System and method for separating particles in suspension utilizing bubbles

Emulsion breaking and phase separation is achieved by droplet adhesion. An emulsion breaking device includes a channel having distinct adjacent zones with distinctly different surface wettability characteristics, namely, solvophilic and solvophobic surfaces. The device is positioned such that the upstream portion of the device is configured to be wetted by the continuous phase of the emulsion, and the downstream portion of the device is configured to be wetted by the dispersed phase of the emulsion. As the emulsion flows from the upstream zone to the downstream zone, the change in surface wettability characteristics promotes adhesion of the dispersed phase as the dispersed phase wets the surface of the downstream portion of the channel, which results in breaking of the emulsion. Subsequent collection of the broken emulsion in a collection vessel results in separation of the disparate phases to facilitate their recapture and recycling.

System and method for emulsion breaking and phase separation by droplet adhesion

A photovoltaic cell and method of making are disclosed. The photovoltaic cell includes a substrate having a surface at least partially covered in wrinkles and folds, the folds dividing the surface into a plurality of domains. A photoactive layer is formed on the substrate. At least one transparent electrode is coupled to the photoactive layer and configured to allow transmission of light into the photoactive layer. The domains may have a wrinkle periodicity of less than 2 &#x3bc;m. The folds may have a fold density of less than 0.25. The transport layer may comprise PEDOT:PSS. The photoactive layer may comprise P3HT:PCBM. The photoactive layer may comprise a bulk heterojunction.

Photoelectric cells incorporating wrinkles and folds to enhance efficiency and bendability and method of making

Provided is a hydrogel. The hydrogel includes a liquid and a plurality of microfibers suspended in the liquid as an entangled network. The entangled network includes physically entangled microfibers that are mechanically interlocked.

Injectable hydrogels from microfiber suspensions

Disclosed is a process and device allowing for fast measurements of the physicochemical properties of amphiphiles (lipids, surfactants, soaps, . . . ). A Marangoni flow is created and characterized using amphiphiles to be characterized. The observed flow is characterized, and using the disclosed process, one can deduce from this measurement many important physicochemical parameters of the amphiphiles such as their critical micellar concentration. Compared to existing techniques, the disclosed process offers the advantage that it requires a single experiment to deduce the parameters, when other techniques (pendant drop method, conductometry, etc . . . ) require the measurement of a quantity (interfacial tension, conductometry) against a systematically varied parameter (amphiphile concentration, . . . ). The disclosed process and devices are ideal to characterize and/or screen rapidly amphiphiles molecules based on their interaction with a solvent.

Rapid characterization of the solubility of amphiphiles

The invention includes microfluidic methods and devices that allow for the continuous production of microfibers with embedded droplets aligned along the length of the fiber at specific positions. The invention allows for formation of single or multiple emulsions within a fiber. The various phases comprised within the fiber can vary in terms of in terms of hydrophobic/hydrophilic character, solid/fluid, or gel crosslink density, which allows for the introduction of heterogeneous microenvironments within the fiber, each of which with distinct solubility characteristics, permeability, and mechanical properties. Various compounds and materials can be encapsulated in the different microcompartments of the fiber for storage and delivery applications, as well as to provide multifunctionality to the fiber structure. The disclosed structures have a broad range of potential applications, for example as engineered substrates with controlled release profiles of multiple compounds for tissue engineering (such as a tissue scaffold, for example) and bioengineering applications.

Droplet-embedded microfibers, and methods and devices for preparing and using same

An apparatus preventing hearing loss having a body made of soft compliant material having first and second ends and a channel extending therethrough, an acoustically limp material adjacent one end of the body with the acoustically limp material having a hole therein aligned with the channel extending through the body, component film, or other structure covering or sealing the opening in the acoustically limp material. The film may be a high-strength polymer less than 10 micrometers thick. A plurality of channels may extend through the body and a plurality of corresponding holes may be provided in the acoustically limp material. The film covers or seals the holes in the acoustically limp material. The film may behave like a flap to close in response to high energy sound waves. The flap shuts from the high intensity shock wave. The body may have shape to fit in an ear canal.

Nano-otologic protective equipment for impact noise toxicity and/or blast overpressure exposure

Methods and systems of measuring biofilms and/or biofilm streamers are presented. The system has at least one channel, a biofilm streamer promotion element, a fluid capable of moving along the channel, wherein the fluid has a flow driven by a controlled pressure; and a measuring element capable of measuring a flow rate of the fluid through the channel. Additionally, methods of screening for compound(s) that promote and/or inhibit biofilm and/or biofilm streamers using this system are also presented. Uses of the system, methods and identified compounds are presented for medical and/or industrial environments.

Systems and methods to detect biofilm streamer growth and their uses

Growing community of inventors

Princeton, NJ, United States of America

Howard A Stone