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Creative Biolabs has optimized the microfluidic Janus particle production method to provide full control over particle morphology and complexity, providing our customers with unlimited manipulation space and exploration potential.

Janus Particle

Janus particle is a class of gel particle materials with non-centrosymmetric characteristics in morphology, composition and performance. The asymmetry of physical, chemical and surface properties of Janus particles offers unique advantages and exciting prospects for their numerous applications including but not limited to water purification, organic matter removal, targeted drug delivery, theranostics, bio-multiplexing, DNA detection, non-invasive imaging and cell/molecular encapsulation.

Fig 1. Functionalized Janus particles with great application potential. (Piskunen, et al. 2022)

Janus Micro-Particles Synthesis on Chip

Traditional Janus particles are manufactured by modifying and fixing the particle surface in a 2D way. Although this method can quickly provide a large number of Janus particles, it also limits the complexity of particle morphology and function. Advances in microfluidic technology have provided more possibilities for the development and manufacture of Janus particles.

Creative Biolabs customizes suitable Janus particle generators to fulfill our client's plans and needs. Our services will allow you to produce monodisperse Janus products of uniform size while achieving the highest control over particle morphology and complexity. After years of research, several relatively mature microfluidic Janus particle generation methods and chip design concepts have been developed.

Fig 2. Variation in flow rate enables particle size control. (Xu, et al. 2020)

• Co-flow

In microchannels, fluids with different chemical compositions flow together in parallel without mixing by a laminar flow pattern. Introducing two or more parallel streams of different compositions into a channel and applying appropriate shear forces with another fluid stream of different directions can form uniform droplets whose size varies with flow rate. These droplets are then polymerized through specific cross-linking reactions to form Janus particles with specific structures and functions. Particles with optical anisotropy, magnetic anisotropy, or amphiphilicity can be generated using co-flow chips, and optimization of the channel geometry also allows the generation of Janus hydrogel particles with different shapes.

• Double Emulsion

Double emulsification is a simple but practical method of Janus particle generation. Selectively processed microfluidic channels generate hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions in the same device, and successive droplet generation units arranged in these regions can wrap the droplets of one phase in the droplets of the other phase to generate O/W/O, W/O/W particles. The subsequent gelation operation can freeze the droplet configuration in the chip and generate anisotropic Janus particles with monodispersity. The simplest double-emulsion chip can be configured by two consecutive T-Junctions, while more droplet-generating units can provide Janus particles with additional gel spheres and more advanced structures and functions.

• Other methods

Air microfluidics, phase separation and electrohydrodynamic co-injection are also commonly used Janus generation methods. These chips can form ion forms of various shapes, and ensure their thermal sensitivity, photosensitivity or electrical polarity anisotropy, and are widely used in enzymatic bioreactors, drug packaging and other fields.

Our Services

As mostly typical multifunctional materials, Janus particles are used in several important fields such as physics, chemistry, and life sciences. Creative Biolabs is committed to providing the best Janus generation chip development, design and manufacture services for clients all over the world. The optimized processing technology will allow you to produce highly monodisperse nano-scale to micron-scale Janus ions. With our support, you can achieve precise control and high adjustability of particle morphology, generate complex structures that meet your needs, and carry out your project with high reproducibility. Our services will be the strongest support for your living cell research, drug delivery, chemical synthesis and functional material development, so don't hesitate to contact us for more information.

References

1. Piskunen, P.; et al. Nanoswimmers based on capped Janus nanospheres. Materials. 2022, 15: 4442.
2. Xu, S.; et al. Polymer capsules with tunable shell thickness synthesized via Janus-to-core shell transition of biphasic droplets produced in a microfluidic flow-focusing device. Nature Research. 2020, 10: 4549.

For Research Use Only. Not For Clinical Use.