Novel fluorosurfactants for droplet microfludics applications

Project summary

We have developed a novel and highly efficient approach based on controlled living radical polymerization (LRP) for synthesizing customized fluorosurfactants that demonstrate exceptional performance in providing ultra-high stability for droplets created in different aqueous solutions including water, biological media such as phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and cell culture medium. Compared to the commercialised surfactant Pico-SurfTM, our surfactants outperform in thermal cycling for PCR testing, and exhibit exceptional biocompatibility for cell and yeast culturing in a double-emulsion system. This breakthrough synthetic approach has the potential to revolutionise the field of droplet-based microfluidics by enabling the development of novel designs that generate droplets with superior stability and functionality for a wide range of applications including genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, and diagnostics.