Description
The incorporation of functional and stimuli-responsive materials into complex three-dimensional (3D) architectures offers a powerful route for improving device performance. These strategies have found application in areas including optoelectronics, soft robotics, energy harvesting, and droplet microfluidics [1–3]. In particular, while droplet-based microfluidics enables precise control of fluid manipulation and reactions at the microscale, devices fabricated using standard approaches (such as photolithography, micromachining, milling, and soft lithography) can remain limited in their geometric complexity and in the practicability of integration of functional and smart materials. Additive manufacturing has stably emerged as a powerful set of fabrication technologies enabling the realization of microfluidic devices with complex and customizable geometries [3]. 3D printing allows for fast prototyping and scalable production of various microfluidic devices, including those capable of high-throughput emulsion generation. In addition, the emergence of four-dimensional (4D) printing technologies further expand the design capabilities by enabling printed components that can evolve over time, with shape or physical properties varying in response to external stimuli.
Here, ongoing work in our group on the development of microfluidic platforms for the generation and characterization of complex emulsions and biomedical platforms will be reviewed. Microfluidic devices incorporating flow-focusing geometries were fabricated using Digital Light Processing (DLP) 3D printing and employed to produce water-in-oil droplets [4], whose formation and assemblies were analysed in depth upon varying channel design. Current efforts focus on developing functional layers and systems, capable to respond to external stimuli such as light and magnetic fields, in a controlled way. Applications include light-responsive 3D-printed architectures [6], and magnetically actuated micro-structured elements, offering great potential for integration into advanced, adaptive microfluidic systems and associated biomedical platforms.
Acknowledgments. The research has received funding from the European Union Next-Generation EU through the Italian “Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNNR)”, mission 4, project the Tuscany Health Ecosystem (THE), Spoke 4 “Nanotechnologies for diagnosis and therapy” (CUP I53C22000780001 and B83C22003930001).
[1] A. Camposeo et al., Adv. Optical Mater. 2019, 7, 1800419. [2] L. Persano et al., Adv. Mater. 2024, 36, 2405363. [3] S. Orsini et al., Appl. Phys. Rev. 2025, 12, 011306. [4] M. Durve, et al., Eur Phys J E Soft Matter. 2023, 46, 32. [5] F. D’Elia et al., Light Sci. App. 2025, 14, 375.