Facile fabrication of uniform-sized, magnetic, and electroconductive hybrid microspheres using a microfluidic droplet generator

Functional uniform-sized polymeric microspheres from Fe3O4-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythio phene) (PEDOT)/polystyrene sulfonate (PSS)-agarose hybrid materials were fabricated using a microfluidic apparatus. Small sizes of microparticles, 20-80 m in size, are achieved by controlling the continuous oil flow rate (Q(c)) in the microfluidic device. The cross-sectional morphology demonstrate dense structure and observation of the sulphur/iron atoms in the microparticles revealed very uniform distribution. Lower resistance of the PEDOT/PSS-agarose hybrid microparticles (8.5 x 10(1)-8 x 10(3) Omega) enabled lighting a light-emitting diode (LED) from the assembled particles. In addition, uniform microparticles can be quickly dragged toward an external magnet indicating good magnetic property. The multi-funtionality of uniform-sized hybrid particle is promising for myriad applications including eco-friendly electronic and biomedical applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.