Abstract
Adsorbents with high adsorption efficiency and excellent biosafety for
biomedical applications are highly required. MXene is a promising
candidate owning these advantages, yet pristine MXene faces dilemmas
including insufficient utility of surface site as well as limited
processibility. Here, we develop MXene-encapsulated porous microcapsules
via microfluidics. The microcapsules have a biomass hydrogel shell that
provides a robust support for MXene in the core, by which the
microcapsules are endowed with high MXene dosage and remarkable
biosafety. Additionally, the MXene nanoflakes assemble into a
three-dimension (3D) network via metal ion-induced gelation, thereby
avoiding restacking and significantly improving surface utilization.
Moreover, a freeze-pretreatment of the microcapsules during preparation
results in the formation of a macroporous structure in the shell, which
can facilitate the diffusion of the target molecules. These features,
combined with additional magneto-responsiveness rendered by the
incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles, contribute to prominent
performances of the microcapsules in cleaning uremia toxins including
creatinine, urea, and uric acid. Thus, it is anticipated that the
MXene-encapsulated microcapsules will be promising adsorbents in
dialysis-related applications, and the combination of microfluidic
encapsulation with metal ion gelation will provide a novel approach for
construction of hybrid MXene materials with desired functions.