Regular Self-Actuation of Liquid Metal Nanodroplets in Radial Texture Gradient Surfaces

Liquid metal movement in microfluidic devices generally requires an external stimulus to achieve its motion, which results in many difficulties to precisely manipulate its motion at a nanoscale. Therefore, there is an attempt to control the motion of a liquid metal droplet without the input of an external force. In this paper, we report an approach to achieve the self-actuation of a gallium nanodroplet in radial texture gradients on substrates. The results have proved the validity of this method. It is suggested that there are four stages in the self-motion of the droplet and that the precursor film forming on the second stage plays a pivotal role in the motion. Furthermore, how the impact velocity affects the self-actuation of the nanodroplet on the gradient surface is also studied. We find that the moderate impacting velocity hinders the self-actuation of the gallium nanodroplet. This study is very helpful to regulate the self-actuation on patterned substrates and facilitate their applications in the fields of microfluidics devices, soft robots, and liquid sensors.