Biomimetic fabrication of alginate beads has promising applications in the field of synthetic bioarchitecture. Combining microfluidic technology with in situ gelation enables the creation of alginate microgels with precisely tunable size, as well as allowing control of the crosslinking process. Owing to the wide range of applications of alginate microgel beads, this study aimed to develop various microfluidic models for the generation of such beads by investigating the influence of several parameters on their morphologies and dispersity. Four types of glass microfluidic chips with flow focusing or co-flowing droplet generators were used to continuously form alginate droplets, with the possibility of either internal or external alginate gelation by a cross-linking agent supplied by a microfluidic channel. In all four models, alginate was used at a fixed concentration, Span 80 was used as a surfactant to improve the long-term stability of the beads, either mineral oil or oleic acid was used as a continuous phase, and either calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) or calcium chloride (CaCl₂) was used as a crosslinking agent. The generated beads exhibited various architectures, including individual monodisperse or polydisperse beads, small clusters, and multicompartment systems. The results of the study revealed the importance of microfluidic design and gelation strategy for the generation of stable polymeric architectures. The current study proposes a simple user’s guide to create alginate microgels in various architectures. The fabricated biomimetic models in the form of polymeric-based vesicles can be further exploited in several applications, including cell-like structures, tissue engineering, and cell and drug encapsulation. Additional investigations will be needed, however, to improve these models so that they more closely resemble the natural structures of cells and tissues.

藻酸盐珠的仿生制造在合成生物建筑学领域中具有广阔的应用前景。将微流体技术与原位凝胶化相结合，可以制造出尺寸可精确调节的藻酸盐微凝胶，并可以控制交联过程。由于藻酸盐微凝胶珠的广泛应用，本研究旨在通过研究几个参数对其形态和分散性的影响，来开发各种微流体模型来生成这种珠。具有流动聚焦或并流液滴产生器的四种类型的玻璃微流体芯片被用于连续形成藻酸盐液滴，并可能通过由微流体通道供应的交联剂使内部或外部藻酸盐胶凝。在所有四个模型中，₃）或氯化钙（CaCl ₂）用作交联剂。产生的珠粒表现出各种结构，包括单独的单分散或多分散珠粒，小簇和多隔室体系。研究结果表明，微流体设计和凝胶化策略对于生成稳定的聚合物结构至关重要。当前的研究提出了一个简单的用户指南，以在各种架构中创建藻酸盐微凝胶。以聚合物囊泡形式制造的仿生模型可以在多种应用中得到进一步利用，包括细胞样结构，组织工程以及细胞和药物封装。但是，需要进一步研究以改进这些模型，以便它们更类似于细胞和组织的自然结构。