Provided herein, inter alia, are compositions including sol-gels and nicotine. The compositions are readily prepared and stored in cartridges or used directly in a device for delivering nicotine to a user.

Compositions include an aqueous organic-based gellant system and nicotine or a salt thereof. The compositions are readily prepared and stored in cartridges or used directly in a device for delivering nicotine to a user.

The present invention generally relates to droplets and/or emulsions, such as multiple emulsions. In some cases, the droplets and/or emulsions may be used in assays, and in certain embodiments, the droplet or emulsion may be hardened to form a gel. In some aspects, a heterogeneous assay can be performed using a gel. For example, a droplet may be hardened to form a gel, where the droplet contains a cell, DNA, or other suitable species. The gel may be exposed to a reactant, and the reactant may interact with the gel and/or with the cell, DNA, etc., in some fashion. For example, the reactant may diffuse through the gel, or the hardened particle may liquefy to form a liquid state, allowing the reactant to interact with the cell. As a specific example, DNA contained within a gel particle may be subject to PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification, e.g., by using PCR primers able to bind to the gel as it forms. As the DNA is amplified using PCR, some of the DNA will be bound to the gel via the PCR primer. After the PCR reaction, unbound DNA may be removed from the gel, e.g., via diffusion or washing. Thus, a gel particle having bound DNA may be formed in one embodiment of the invention.

A product comprises a granular composition of gel particles, particularly micro-gel particles. Said composition comprises a carbohydrate matrix (lattice/network) between cells that contain said gel particles. A method of manufacturing such product that comprises a granular composition of gel particles, particularly micro-gel particles, involves forming an aqueous slurry comprising said gel particles and a water soluble carbohydrate compound. Said slurry is shaped into said product and said shaped slurry is solidified.

Provided herein, inter alia, are compositions including sol-gels and nicotine. The compositions are readily prepared and stored in cartridges or used directly in a device for delivering nicotine to a user.

Compositions include an aqueous organic-based gellant system and nicotine or a salt thereof. The compositions are readily prepared and stored in cartridges or used directly in a device for delivering nicotine to a user.

The present invention is generally directed to beads, methods of making said beads, and methods of functionalizing said beads with one or more functional groups to form functionalized beads, such as universal functionalized beads, wherein the functional group can be a chemical group. In some embodiments, the beads can be gel beads.