Many different techniques have been reported for the generation of monodisperse microgels, however, control over shape and material composition without overcomplicating the set-up remains difficult. While some batch processing techniques can produce high resolution complex shapes, they offer less flexibility. Microfluidic techniques, on the contrary, are ideal tools for generating monodisperse droplets as precursors for soft microbeads. Unfortunately, microfluidic tools have not yet been utilized to their full potential, commonly generating spherical droplets consisting of one material only.

Here, we combine aqueous-phase-separation with microfluidics to generate double emulsions. Depending on the materials used, microgels having either asymmetry in shape or asymmetry in material composition are obtained. We show the versatility of this microfluidic design to generate biocompatible microparticles of two or more immiscible, aqueous solutions of which at least one is polymerizable and give a detailed description on how to make these microparticles including some crucial handling steps.

已经报道了许多不同的技术来生成单分散微凝胶，但是，在不使设置过于复杂的情况下控制形状和材料组成仍然很困难。虽然一些批处理技术可以产生高分辨率的复杂形状，但它们提供的灵活性较低。相反，微流体技术是生成单分散液滴作为软微珠前体的理想工具。不幸的是，微流体工具尚未充分发挥其潜力，通常会产生仅由一种材料组成的球形液滴。

在这里，我们将水相分离与微流体相结合以产生双重乳液。根据所使用的材料，获得形状不对称或材料组成不对称的微凝胶。我们展示了这种微流体设计的多功能性，可以生成两种或多种不混溶的水溶液的生物相容性微粒，其中至少一种是可聚合的，并详细描述了如何制作这些微粒，包括一些关键的处理步骤。