Jellyfish Tentacle-Inspired Hydrogel Microfibers Implanted with Discrete Structural Color Microsphere Tactile Sensing Units

Jiahui Guo; Han Zhang; Hui Zhang; Hanxu Chen; Zhuxiao Gu; Dagan Zhang; Yuanjin Zhao

doi:10.1007/s42765-022-00174-3

Advanced Fiber Materials ›› 2022, Vol. 4 ›› Issue (5) :1209 -1218. DOI: 10.1007/s42765-022-00174-3

Research Article

Jellyfish Tentacle-Inspired Hydrogel Microfibers Implanted with Discrete Structural Color Microsphere Tactile Sensing Units

Author information +

¹Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 210096, Nanjing, China

²Oujiang Laboratory (Zhejiang Lab for Regenerative Medicine, Vision and Brain Health), Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 325001, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China

³Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Chinese Academy of Science, 100101, Beijing, China

^e gzx@seu.edu.cn

^f zhang_dagan@126.com

^g yjzhao@seu.edu.cn

Jiahui Guo

received her Bachelor’s degree at the State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics from Southeast University in 2018. She is now a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Yuanjin Zhao at the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering of Southeast University. Her current scientific interest is focused on the fabrication of functional materials based on microfluidics.

Han Zhang

received her bachelor's degree from Southeast University in 2018. She is now a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Yuanjin Zhao at the State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics of Southeast University. Her current scientific interests focus on porous biomaterials and their applications.

Hui Zhang

received her BS degree from the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering of Southeast University in 2019. She is now a PhD candidate at the School of Life Science and Technology in Southeast University. Her current scientific interests are focused on nerve repair, drug delivery systems, biomaterials and their applications.

Hanxu Chen

received his Bachelor’s degree at the State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics from Southeast University in 2020. He is now a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Yuanjin Zhao in Southeast University. His current scientific interest is focused on the fabrication of functional photonic crystal materials, organ-on-a-chip, and their applications.

Zhuxiao Gu

completed his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Florida where he worked in colloidal self-assembly, fabrication of biomimetic functional nanostructures, and surface plasmon resonance-related techniques such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Upon graduation, he successively joined the Jiangsu key Laboratory for Science and Applications of Molecular Ferroelectrics, and the Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School as a postdoctoral researcher. His current interest is in the exploitation of light-matter interactions, especially in photonic-crystal-modulated second-harmonic generation (SHG) and SHG imaging of ferroelectric domains, as well as fabrication of biomimetic micro- and nanostructures.

Dagan Zhang

from Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Institute of Translational Medicine, The Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School. He obtained his PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University. Currently, His current scientific interests are focused on colloidal crystals, and biosensing. He has published SCI papers by the first author or other author, such as Nano Today, Applied Materials Today, Biosensors & Bioelectronics, Analytical Chemistry, Lab on a Chip, Langmuir, Analyst, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Yuanjin Zhao

is a full professor at the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering of Southeast University. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2011 from the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering of Southeast University. In 2009-2010, he worked as a research scholar in Prof. David A. Weitz’s group in Harvard University. His current scientific interests include microfluidics, ferrofluids, biomaterials, and organs-on-chips.

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Abstract

Tactile sensors with distinctive ability to imitate skins have attracted considerable attention from researches for applications in a variety of sensing fields. Here, inspired by the tentacles of jellyfish, biomimetic hydrogel microfibers were fabricated to be implanted with discrete structural color microsphere units for spatial tactile sensing. By employing a microfluidic spinning technology, the generated microfibers were with high microsphere encapsulation features and controllable morphologies because of the density match of microspheres and the pre-hydrogel solution. In addition, benefitting from the easy manipulation of the microfluidics, microfibers implanted with different structural color microspheres could also be realized. It was demonstrated that the resultant microfibers would show synchronous shifts of photonic bandgaps as well as structural color when a local force like pressure or tension was applied to the microsphere part. Based on the localization of finger bending experiments, the practical values of the bioinspired microfibers have also been proved as spatial tactile sensors. Thus, it is believed that the proposed bioinspired hydrogel microfibers are greatly significant in diverse sensing application fields.

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Jiahui Guo, Han Zhang, Hui Zhang, Hanxu Chen, Zhuxiao Gu, Dagan Zhang, Yuanjin Zhao. Jellyfish Tentacle-Inspired Hydrogel Microfibers Implanted with Discrete Structural Color Microsphere Tactile Sensing Units. Advanced Fiber Materials, 2022, 4(5): 1209-1218 DOI:10.1007/s42765-022-00174-3