Biocompatible surfactants for water-in-fluorocarbon emulsions

TLDR

Drops of water‑in‑fluorocarbon emulsions hold great potential for compartmentalizing biological systems, but suitable surfactants are scarce. The study introduces a novel class of fluorosurfactants synthesized by coupling oligomeric perfluorinated polyethers (PFPE) with polyethyleneglycol (PEG). These fluorosurfactants are produced by coupling PFPE oligomers with PEG chains. The resulting block copolymer surfactants stabilize water‑in‑fluorocarbon emulsions during drop formation, incubation, and reinjection, enable in‑vitro translation and single‑cell encapsulation, and are compatible with PDMS microfluidic devices, making them ideal for high‑throughput drop‑based applications.

Abstract

Drops of water-in-fluorocarbon emulsions have great potential for compartmentalizing both in vitro and in vivo biological systems; however, surfactants to stabilize such emulsions are scarce. Here we present a novel class of fluorosurfactants that we synthesize by coupling oligomeric perfluorinated polyethers (PFPE) with polyethyleneglycol (PEG). We demonstrate that these block copolymer surfactants stabilize water-in-fluorocarbon oil emulsions during all necessary steps of a drop-based experiment including drop formation, incubation, and reinjection into a second microfluidic device. Furthermore, we show that aqueous drops stabilized with these surfactants can be used for in vitrotranslation (IVT), as well as encapsulation and incubation of single cells. The compatability of this emulsion system with both biological systems and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic devices makes these surfactants ideal for a broad range of high-throughput, drop-based applications.