Mechanowetting drives droplet and fluid transport on traveling surface waves generated by light-responsive liquid crystal polymers
- 1 June 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Physics of Fluids
- Vol. 33 (6), 063307
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0050864
Abstract
In nature, capillary forces are often driving microfluidic propulsion and droplet manipulation, and technologies have been developed to utilize these forces in applications such as lab-on-a-chip biosensors and microfluidic systems. At the same time, responsive materials have been developed that can be activated by a variety of external triggers, including light, electric fields, and temperature, to locally deform and create dynamic surface structures, such as traveling waves. Here, we combine these developments into a system that enables capillary-driven droplet transport and fluid propulsion generated by light-induced surface waves in azobenzene-embedded liquid crystal polymers. We demonstrate that the traveling waves are able to efficiently propel fluids by means of mechanowetting. We couple the wave profiles to the fluid simulations using a multiphase computational fluid dynamics approach. We study three different fluid propulsion systems, i.e., peristaltic flow, liquid slug transport, and free-standing droplet transport. The first system operates on a fluid-filled single channel and achieves relative flow speeds of . In contrast, the slugs and droplets are transported at two orders of magnitude higher speed equal to the wave speed ( ) by exploiting the mechanowetting effect. We quantify the capillary forces generated by the traveling surface waves. Our method opens new avenues in light-driven (digital) microfluidic systems with enhanced control of fluid flow.
Funding Information
- Stichting voor de Technische Wetenschappen (12826)
- Dutch Polymer Institute (775)
This publication has 49 references indexed in Scilit:
- Designing antiviral surfaces to suppress the spread of COVID-19Physics of Fluids, 2021
- Acoustic streaming vortices enable contactless, digital control of dropletsScience Advances, 2020
- Acoustofluidics along inclined surfaces based on AlN/Si Rayleigh surface acoustic wavesSensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2020
- Versatile superamphiphobic cotton fabrics fabricated by coating with SiO 2 /FOTSApplied Surface Science, 2017
- Water transport mechanism through open capillaries analyzed by direct surface modifications on biological surfacesScientific Reports, 2013
- Surface Acoustic Wave Driven Microfluidics – A ReviewMicro and Nanosystems, 2010
- Ultrafast microfluidics using surface acoustic wavesBiomicrofluidics, 2009
- A simple large-scale droplet generator for studies of inkjet printingReview of Scientific Instruments, 2008
- The origins and the future of microfluidicsNature, 2006
- Acoustically driven planar microfluidicsSuperlattices and Microstructures, 2003