Dataset Information

Acoustic Manipulation of Droplets under Reduced Gravity.

ABSTRACT: Contactless manipulation of matter is essential for studying physical phenomena. Acoustic manipulation of liquid samples using ultrasonic phased arrays provides a novel and attractive solution for mid-air manipulation, such as levitation, transportation, coalescence, mixing, separation, evaporation, and extraction, with a simple and single sequence. Despite the importance of gravity in droplet dynamics, its effect on a levitated droplet with an ultrasonic phased array remains unclear. To disseminate acoustic manipulation, better understanding of the fundamental physics of a droplet manipulated by ultrasonic phased arrays is required. Here, we show contactless levitation, transportation, and coalescence of multiple droplets under both ground and reduced gravity. Under ground gravity, the possible levitation size of the sample is limited to below the half wavelength of sound. Under reduced gravity, however, droplets that are larger than the limit can be successfully levitated, transported, and coalesced. Furthermore, the threshold of sound pressure for droplet levitation and manipulation could be minimised with the suppression of nonlinear acoustic phenomena under reduced gravity. These insights promote the development of contactless manipulation techniques of droplets for future space experiment and inhabitancy.

SUBMITTER: Hasegawa K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6851086 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Acoustic Manipulation of Droplets under Reduced Gravity.

Hasegawa Koji K Watanabe Ayumu A Abe Yutaka Y

Scientific reports 20191112 1

Contactless manipulation of matter is essential for studying physical phenomena. Acoustic manipulation of liquid samples using ultrasonic phased arrays provides a novel and attractive solution for mid-air manipulation, such as levitation, transportation, coalescence, mixing, separation, evaporation, and extraction, with a simple and single sequence. Despite the importance of gravity in droplet dynamics, its effect on a levitated droplet with an ultrasonic phased array remains unclear. To dissemi ...[more]

PMID: 31719646

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Project description:In droplet-based microfluidic platforms, precise separation of microscale droplets of different chemical composition is increasingly necessary for high-throughput combinatorial chemistry in drug discovery and screening assays. A variety of droplet sorting methods have been proposed, in which droplets of the same kind are translocated. However, there has been relatively less effort in developing techniques to separate the uniform-sized droplets of different chemical composition. Most of the previous droplet sorting or separation techniques either rely on the droplet size for the separation marker or adopt on-demand application of a force field for the droplet sorting or separation. The existing droplet microfluidic separation techniques based on the in-droplet chemical composition are still in infancy because of the technical difficulties. In this study, we propose an acoustofluidic method to simultaneously separate microscale droplets of the same volume and dissimilar acoustic impedance using ultrasonic surface acoustic wave (SAW)-induced acoustic radiation force (ARF). For extensive investigation on the SAW-induced ARF acting on both cylindrical and spherical droplets, we first performed a set of the droplet sorting experiments under varying conditions of acoustic impedance of the dispersed phase fluid, droplet velocity, and wave amplitude. Moreover, for elucidation of the underlying physics, a new dimensionless number ARD was introduced, which was defined as the ratio of the ARF to the drag force acting on the droplets. The experimental results were comparatively analyzed by using a ray acoustics approach and found to be in good agreement with the theoretical estimation. Based on the findings, we successfully demonstrated the simultaneous separation of uniform-sized droplets of the different acoustic impedance under continuous application of the acoustic field in a label-free and detection-free manner. Insomuch as on-chip, precise separation of multiple kinds of droplets is critical in many droplet microfluidic applications, the proposed acoustofluidic approach will provide new prospects for microscale droplet separation.

Dataset Information

Acoustic Manipulation of Droplets under Reduced Gravity.

Publications

Acoustic Manipulation of Droplets under Reduced Gravity.

Similar Datasets

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