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Taking Advantage of Reduced Droplet-surface Interaction to Optimize Transport of Bioanalytes in Digital Microfluidics

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Published on: November 10, 2014

Engineered Switchable-Wettability Surfaces for Multi-Path Directional Transportation of Droplets and Subaqueous

Dongdong Xie^1,2, Yunna Sun¹, Yongjin Wu^1,2

¹National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.

Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)

|November 24, 2022

Summary

Researchers developed a universal strategy for programmable fluid transport on a novel surface. This method enables efficient, robust manipulation of both liquid droplets and gas bubbles, paving the way for advanced microfluidic devices.

Keywords:

droplets and subaqueous bubbles microfluidics programmable directional fluid transport surface energy switchable wettability

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Fluid Dynamics
Surface Chemistry

Background:

Conventional engineered surfaces have fixed wettability, limiting them to single-phase fluid transport.
Robust fluid transport systems that tolerate path defects are not fully developed.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a universal wettability switching strategy for programmable, directional transport of both liquid droplets and subaqueous bubbles.
To create a robust, efficient, and cost-effective fluid transport system.

Main Methods:

Utilized a dumbbell-patterned functional surface (DPFS).
Tuned superwettability via octadecyltrichlorosilane treatment and ultraviolet-C selective irradiation.
Leveraged surface energy differences for fluid propulsion within the patterned surface.

Main Results:

Achieved programmable directional transport of both droplets and subaqueous bubbles.
Demonstrated strong robustness against path defects due to multiple channels and ultralow-volume-loss transport.
Successfully demonstrated spatially-selective cooling devices and subaqueous gas microreactors.

Conclusions:

The developed strategy enables on-chip programmable manipulation of two-phase fluids.
This energy-consumption-free system opens new avenues for microfluidics and related applications.
The switchable superwettability of DPFS is key to regulating fluid dynamics for complex tasks.