Digital Microfluidics: Magnetic Transportation and Coalescence of Sessile Droplets on Hydrophobic Surfaces

Facile fabrication of robust superhydrophobic tapered needles for collection and transportation of underwater bubbles

The collection and transportation of underwater bubbles has attracted significant attention due to their wide range of applications in the mining, petroleum, and chemical industries. In this study, robust superhydrophobic tapered needles were successfully fabricated by spraying a superhydrophobic coating prepared by an organic-inorganic hybrid method. The prepared tapered needles present excellent surface stability and good superhydrophobicity with a contact angle (CA) of about 156°. The fabricated tapered needles demonstrate excellent performance in collection and transportation of underwater bubbles and the working mechanism was also thoroughly studied. The prepared robust superhydrophobic tapered needles provide a simple, efficient and economical way for collection and transportation of underwater bubbles.

Bridge Radius Evolution during Coalescence of Ferrofluid Droplets Suspended in a Nonmagnetic Outer Fluid

Understanding the droplet coalescence/merging is vital for many areas of microfluidics such as biochemical reactors, drug delivery, inkjet printing, oil recovery, etc. In the present study, we carried out numerical simulations of two magnetic droplets suspended in a nonmagnetic fluid matrix and coalescing under the influence of an external magnetic field. We observed that the applied magnetic field played a key role in the merging dynamics of the magnetic droplets. When the two droplets make the first contact with each other, a microscopic liquid bridge forms between the two and grows rapidly in the lateral direction until it coalesces into one. The temporal evolution of the neck radius with the onset of coalescence gives the growth rate of the liquid bridge. In the present study, parameters such as magnetic Bond number, magnetic susceptibility, and the viscosity ratio of the outer ambient fluid to droplet fluid were varied, and the bridge radius growth rate was assessed. The current study aims to discern how parameters such as magnetic Bond number, magnetic susceptibility, and the viscosity ratio influence the growth rate of the liquid bridge that forms between the droplets during coalescence. It is observed that the growth rate of the bridge radius is significantly affected by the change in magnetic Bond number and magnetic susceptibility for a high viscosity ratio. In contrast, for low viscosity ratio cases, the influence of magnetic Bond number and magnetic susceptibility on the rate of bridge growth is negligible. This unveils the implicit relationship among the three aforementioned parameters. Furthermore, we observe that the spatial structure of the neck region varied with the viscosity ratio and affected the rate of expansion of the neck radius. This study reveals how a magnetic influence can manipulate the structure of the neck region of two merging droplets and in turn affect the growth rate.

Microscopic Mechanism for Gradient Diffusion of Salt-Containing Droplets Induced by Electromagnetic Synergy: A Molecular Dynamics Study

The electromagnetic synergy has been proven to be highly effective in separating oil-water emulsions. However, the dynamic impact mechanism of electromagnetic fields on the internal structure of salt droplets remains unclear. In this study, the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was used to investigate the molecular diffusion of salt ions and water molecules, as well as the dynamic behavior of droplets under the combined influence of electromagnetic fields. The results indicate that ions accumulate in the electromagnetic synergistic field, causing the deformation amplitude of droplets to be smaller than that in a single electric field. The magnetic field affects the energy of the system, when the magnetic field strength is between 1 and 5T, the nonbonded energy significantly increases nonlinearly; when the magnetic field strength is greater than 5T, the total energy of the system significantly changes. In addition, the viscosity of the medium is significantly lower when the intensity of the magnetic and electric fields is controlled within a specific range, providing a new way to regulate the fluidity of fluids.

On-Chip Liquid Manipulation via a Flexible Dual-Layered Channel Possessing Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic Dichotomy

The hydrophilic/hydrophobic cooperative interface provides a smart platform to control liquid distribution and delivery. Through the fusion of flexibility and complex structure, we present a manipulable, open, and dual-layered liquid channel (MODLC) for on-demand mechanical control of fluid delivery. Driven by anisotropic Laplace pressure, the mechano-controllable asymmetric channel of MODLC can propel the directional slipping of liquid located between the paired tracks. Upon a single press, the longest transport distance can reach 10 cm with an average speed of ∼3 cm/s. The liquid on the MODLC can be immediately manipulated by pressing or dragging processes, and versatile liquid-manipulating processes on hierarchical MODLC chips have been achieved, including remote droplet magneto-control, continuous liquid distributor, and gas-producing chip. The flexible hydrophilic/hydrophobic interface and its assembly can extend the function and applications of the wettability-patterned interface, which should update our understanding of complex systems for sophisticated liquid transport.

Advances in droplet digital polymerase chain reaction on microfluidic chips

The PCR technique has been known to the general public since the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19. This technique has progressed through three stages: from simple PCR to real-time fluorescence PCR to digital PCR. Among them, the microfluidic-based droplet digital PCR technique has attracted much attention and has been widely applied due to its advantages of high throughput, high sensitivity, low reagent consumption, low cross-contamination, and absolute quantification ability. In this review, we introduce various designs of microfluidic-based ddPCR developed within the last decade. The microfluidic-based droplet generation methods, thermal cycle strategies, and signal counting approaches are described, and the applications in the fields of single-cell analysis, disease diagnosis, and pathogen detection are introduced. Further, the challenges and prospects of microfluidic-based ddPCR are discussed. We hope that this review can contribute to the further development of the microfluidic-based ddPCR technique.

Coalescence of a Ferrofluid Drop at Its Bulk Surface with or without a Magnetic Field

The coalescence of a ferrofluid drop at its bulk surface, with or without a magnetic field, was investigated experimentally by a high-speed camera. Shape deformations of both the pendant ferrofluid drop and the bulk surface in the axial direction were observed during the approaching process even in the absence of a magnetic field. The angle of the upper pendant peak at the first contact decreases with the magnetic flux density, while the lower ferrofluid peak displays an opposite trend. The coalescing width of the ferrofluid drop follows a power-law relationship. The exponent of 0.64 under medium and high magnetic fields as well as the case without magnetic field confirms the inertial regime of drop coalescence. Under the low magnetic field, the significant exponent increasing from 0.59 to 3.02 at about 4 ms is in coincidence with the sudden change to a smooth coalescing section according to the visualized images. A high-speed microparticle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) technique was employed with a transparent model fluid to reveal the flow fields during the drop coalescence instead of opaque ferrofluids.

Fabrication of Transparent and Flexible Digital Microfluidics Devices

This study proposed a fabrication method for thin, film-based, transparent, and flexible digital microfluidic devices. A series of characterizations were also conducted with the fabricated digital microfluidic devices. For the device fabrication, the electrodes were patterned by laser ablation of 220 nm-thick indium tin oxide (ITO) layer on a 175 μm-thick polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The electrodes were insulated with a layer of 12 μm-thick polyethylene (PE) film as the dielectric layer, and finally, a surface treatment was conducted on PE film in order to enhance the hydrophobicity. The whole digital microfluidic device has a total thickness of less than 200 μm and is nearly transparent in the visible range. The droplet manipulation with the proposed digital microfluidic device was also achieved. In addition, a series of characterization studies were conducted as follows: the contact angles under different driving voltages, the leakage current density across the patterned electrodes, and the minimum driving voltage with different control algorithms and droplet volume were measured and discussed. The UV–VIS spectrum of the proposed digital microfluidic devices was also provided in order to verify the transparency of the fabricated device. Compared with conventional methods for the fabrication of digital microfluidic devices, which usually have opaque metal/carbon electrodes, the proposed transparent and flexible digital microfluidics could have significant advantages for the observation of the droplets on the digital microfluidic device, especially for colorimetric analysis using the digital microfluidic approach.

Spreading Dynamics of an Impinging Ferrofluid Droplet on Hydrophilic Surfaces under Uniform Magnetic Fields

This paper reports a numerical investigation on the spreading dynamics of an impinging ferrofluid droplet on solid hydrophilic surfaces (i.e., θ_w ≤ 60°) in the presence of uniform magnetic fields. A finite element method-based commercial solver is implemented to perform several numerical simulations, which uses a phase-field (PF) method to couple both the flow and magnetic fields. The results demonstrate that a uniform magnetic field is capable of controlling the spreading dynamics of an impinging droplet on hydrophilic substrates. Additionally, the application of a magnetic field results in the generation of a steady-state droplet shape with a reduced base diameter and an increased apex height at higher magnetic Bond numbers at the end of the spreading process. Moreover, as the viscosity of the droplet decreases, the droplet experiences an increase in its primary spreading diameter, which can be even reduced through the implementation of a vertical uniform magnetic field. Additionally, an oscillatory motion appears in a droplet during the spreading phenomenon at lower Ohnesorge numbers (i.e., Oh = 0.023), which is further sustained for a longer period of time in the relaxation phase with increased amplitudes in the case of an extremely low-viscosity droplet (i.e., Oh = 0.002) before attaining a final equilibrium shape. Furthermore, at Oh = 0.002, the droplet undergoes a breakup event after the impact for a short period of time, while the magnetic field induces an elastic behavior in a droplet at lower viscosities (i.e., Oh = 0.023) during the free fall under gravity.

Architecture-Driven Fast Droplet Transport without Mass Loss

Spontaneous droplet transport without mass loss has great potential applications in the fields of energy and biotechnology, but it remains challenging due to the difficulty in obtaining a sufficient driving force for the transport while suppressing droplet mass loss. Learning from the slippery peristome of Nepenthes alata and wedge topology of a shorebird beak that can spontaneously feed water against gravity, a combined system consisting of two face-to-face hydrophilic slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) with variable beak-like opening and spacing was proposed to constrain the droplet in-between and initiate fast droplet transport over a long distance of 75 mm with a maximum speed of 12.2 mm·s^-1 without mass loss by taking advantage of the Laplace pressure gradient induced by the asymmetric shape of the constrained droplet. The theoretical model based on the Navier-Stokes equation was developed to interpret the corresponding mechanism of the droplet transport process. In addition, in situ sophisticated droplet manipulations such as droplet mixing are readily feasible when applying flexible 304 stainless foil as the substrate of SLIPS. It is believed that extended research would contribute to new references for the precise and fast droplet motion control intended for energy harvest and water collection devices.

External-field-induced directional droplet transport: A review

Directional transport of fluids is crucial for vital activities of organisms and numerous industrial applications. This process has garnered widespread research attention due to the wide breadth of flexible applications such as medical diagnostics, drug delivery, and digital microfluidics. The rational design of functional surfaces that can achieve the subtle control of liquid behavior. Previous studies were mainly dependent on the special asymmetric structures, which inevitably have the problem of slow transport speed and short distance. To improve controllability, researchers have attempted to use external fields, such as thermal, light, electric fields, and magnetic fields, to achieve controllable droplet transport. On the fundamental side, much of their widespread applicably is due to the degree of control over droplet transport. This review provides an overview of recent progress in the last three years toward the transport of droplets with different mechanisms induced by various external stimuli, including light, electric, thermal, and magnetic field. First, the relevant basic theory and typical induced gradient for directional liquid transport are illustrated. We will then review the latest advances in the external-field-induced directional transport. Moreover, the most emerging applications such as digital microfluidics, harvesting of energy and water, heat transfer, and oil/water separation are also presented. Finally, we will outline possible future perspectives to attract more researchers interest and promote the development of this field.