Download or read book Microfluidic Approaches to the Synthesis of Complex Polymeric Particles written by Dhananjay Dendukuri and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Cont.) A third approach to synthesizing particles uses elastomeric phase masks to build all-PDMS devices. Coherent laser light passing through a phase mask generates a complex 3D distribution of intensity that selectively exposes certain regions while leaving out others. This results in the formation of 3-D structures whose features can be tuned at the micron scale and below. We have attempted the formation of 3-D structures in hydrogel polymers which could have important implications in the field of tissue engineering. Finally, we have developed a simple model of the oxygen inhibited polymerization that occurs in flow lithography. This model is able to qualitatively predict the presence of a thin, uncrosslinked layer of oligomer close to the walls of the PDMS device. This layer is critical to our ability to flow out particles in flow lithography. This thesis demonstrates that microfluidics is indeed a viable and promising route to the synthesis of complex polymeric particles and structures.