Abstract
Monodisperse copolymer particles carrying surface carboxyl groups were prepared by in-situ UV polymerization of ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) with acrylic acid (AA) via a planar 3D microfluidic flow-focusing device (MFFD). The design of the coaxial orifices in the 3D-MFFD enables the confinement of the comonomer liquid thread to the central axis of the microchannel, which can avoid the wetting problem. High efficiency of bioconjugation on carboxylated copolymer particles was achieved by two contributing factors: (a) Increasing the AA concentration results in a higher content of AA buried within the copolymer particle. (b) Increasing the AA concentration results in the increase of the poly(EDGMA-co-AA) network sizes (mesh sizes), which can increase the possibility of the antibody diffusing into the copolymer particles . © 2008 CBMS.