Bonding of macromolecular hydrogels using perturbants.

This work describes a method to bond patterned macromolecular gels into monolithic structures using perturbants. Bonding strengths for a variety of solutes follow a Hofmeister ordering; this result and optical measurements indicate that bonding occurs by reversible perturbation of contacting gels. The resulting microfluidic gels are mechanically robust and can serve as scaffolds for cell culture.