Open AccessReversible lossless manipulation of water droplets with large‐range volume
Author(s) -
Huang Liu,
Wang Xuyue,
Zhao Changlin,
Liu Jiyu,
Liu Ziai,
Sun Yankui,
Liu Xin,
Song Jinlong
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
micro and nano letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1750-0443
DOI - 10.1049/mnl.2017.0789
Subject(s) - volume (thermodynamics) , lossless compression , range (aeronautics) , materials science , computer science , thermodynamics , physics , composite material , artificial intelligence , data compression
The lossless manipulation of microdroplets has great promising applications in the fields of such as liquids transportation. In recent years, superhydrophobic surfaces with low adhesion have been utilised as an effective solid surface to realise the lossless transfer of liquids. However, the present methods using superhydrophobic surfaces are hard to realise the reversible lossless manipulation of water droplets with a large‐range volume. Here, a special transfer pipette composed of a superhydrophobic hole and an optimised pressure‐generation device is developed to realise the lossless manipulation of water droplets. The superhydrophobic surfaces are obtained by electrochemical etching, boiling‐water immersion and stearic acid modification, showing an excellent superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of ∼165° and roll‐off angle of ∼2°. The capture and release of water droplets are realised via controlling the resultant force of the vertical component of capillary force and gravity of droplets. The applied pressure is far less than the threshold pressure which guaranties the lossless property in the manipulation processes. The operable limiting volume of water droplets even reaches to 1404 µL, showing a large‐range operable volume. Moreover, the strategy can easily realise the reversible and repeatable manipulation showing potential applications in the biological and microfluidic fields.