Fig. 2.

Microfluidic setups used in this study and resulting eADF assemblies. (Top) A laminar flow mixing device. No elongational flow component is generated along the flow direction. (Middle) A laminar flow mixing device with a bottleneck 1,000 μm downstream of the laminar flow mixing region. A fluid element approaching from the left is subjected to an elongational flow just before the bottleneck. (Bottom) A laminar flow mixing device with a bottleneck at the point of mixing. An incoming flow element is subjected to elongational flow at the time of mixing with the fluids from the neighboring channels. Mixing always takes place by diffusion only. For eADF4, spherical colloidal assemblies are observed in all geometries. For eADF3, the third setup results in merged spherical assemblies and, depending on the flow rate, also in larger fibers, as shown in Fig. 3.