“…Hydrogels may imbibe solvent molecules in their polymeric chains and then swell upon diffusion of the solvents. This swelling phenomenon brings interesting applications in microfluidic systems (Amiri and Mazaheri, 2020) such as drug delivery systems (Gharehnazifam et al, 2021;Hoare and Kohane, 2008), micro-valves (Ghasemkhani et al, 2021;Mazaheri et al, 2018), micro-pumps (Richter et al, 2009), actuators (Nourian et al, 2020), self-folding devices (Guan et al, 2005), grippers (Yoon, 2019), biosensors (Dolatabadi et al, 2022;Goh et al, 2017Goh et al, , 2019, and cell immobilization (Jen et al, 1996). Depending on different features, hydrogels can be divided into various categories.…”