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. 2020 Mar 23;5(13):7529–7536. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00344

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Electric field-mediated content release from DNA-functionalized water-in-oil droplets. (A) Representative confocal fluorescence images of water-in-oil droplets containing randomly distributed Cy5-labeled DNA only (λex = 596 nm, left image) or Cy5-labeled DNA in the presence of complementary cholesterol-tagged DNA (right image). The scale bars are 20 μm. (B) Schematic illustration of different time points in the selective microfluidic release from unfunctionalized droplets (top row, I–III) and droplets functionalized with cholesterol-tagged DNA (bottom row, IV–VI). (C) Cy5 fluorescence emission spectrum of the continuous aqueous phase obtained after the release process. The blue line shows the continuous aqueous phase of the unfunctionalized droplets after the release, whereas the red line indicates the continuous aqueous phase of the DNA-functionalized droplets. The employment of cholesterol-tagged DNA inside the droplets effectively removed the Cy5-labeled DNA from the aqueous phase.